How NOT to Solve Homelessness

Many people have heard the name Warren Buffet.

The CEO and Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway.

The “Oracle of Omaha.”

Buffet is worth well over $100B, regularly making him one of the wealthiest people on the planet.

Fewer people might know the name Charlie Munger, who sadly passed away this week at 99-years-old.

Munger was the Vice Chairman of Berkeshire Hathaway and Warren Buffet’s self-described “closest partner and right-hand man.”

One of the keys to Buffet and Munger’s success has been the development of powerful “heuristics,” which are principles and frameworks that help them approach complex problems, such as where to invest their (and their customers’) money.

How NOT to Solve a Problem

As human beings, we have a tendency to plan forward. We come up with a vision for where we want to go and then we develop a strategy and tactics for getting there.

One of Munger’s tried and true approaches to problem solving is to do the opposite. In the simplest possible terms, we must:

“Invert, always invert.”

Munger’s insight to plan backwards was born out of hard-earned, real world experience.