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Life is full of seemingly impossible changes, and the key is to get used to a method of reverse thinking. Sometimes we only need to take a small step beyond, just like the 'Hassan IOU Principle.'

A merchant borrowed 2000 yuan from Hassan and wrote an IOU. When the repayment deadline was approaching, Hassan suddenly discovered that the IOU was lost, which made him extremely anxious because he knew that without the IOU, the borrower would deny the debt. Hassan's friend Nasreddin, upon learning this, said to Hassan, "Write a letter to the merchant, asking him to return the 2500 yuan he borrowed from you when the time comes." Hassan was puzzled: "I lost the IOU, and even asking for 2000 yuan is a problem. How can I ask for 2500 yuan?" Although Hassan didn't understand, he did as advised. After sending the letter, Hassan quickly received a reply, in which the merchant wrote, "I borrowed 2000 yuan from you, not 2500 yuan. I will return it when the time comes."

Reverse thinking, as a methodology, has obvious instrumental significance. From the philosophical speculation of the ancient Chinese philosopher Laozi, such as "Being and non-being give rise to each other; difficult and easy complement each other; long and short contrast each other; high and low depend on each other; sound and voice harmonize with each other," many operable details can be derived, including:

  1. Positional Reverse Method Positional reverse means a complete exchange between two parties, placing the other party in one's original position. It refers not only to physical space but also to an abstract essence of opposition. Opposites that complement each other include: in-out, advance-retreat, up-down, front-back, head-tail, etc.

In love, couples are sometimes sweet and sometimes quarrelsome. The reason for quarrels is usually complaining that the other never considers oneself or stands in one's shoes. In fact, if everyone could truly stand in others' positions, there would be no more wars or tragedies in the world. Unfortunately, most people, when complaining that the other doesn't consider their perspective, forget that they should also consider the other's perspective. It seems that "reverse position-taking" is easier said than done.

Learning positional reverse begins with four words: put yourself in others' shoes. In practical application, you need to truly stand from others' perspectives—especially the perspective of the "opponent" with whom you have a conflict of interest—to view and analyze things. Learning this requires not only a sincere heart but also innovative wisdom.

Studying the problem from the opposite side and exchanging perspectives with the other party is a "one-time reverse position-taking." Reverse position-taking thinking can also be done multiple times, even repeatedly. More than two exchanges constitute multiple exchanges.

Learning positional reverse also requires mastering "exchange—re-exchange." The reason for multiple, repeated reverse position-taking is that we must consider that the "opposing" party may also be engaging in reverse position-taking thinking: thinking about others—making feedback—then thinking about what reverse feedback others might make to your feedback—re-feedback... This is the upgrade of reverse position-taking thought, the ultimate grasp of exchange thought. In such positional confrontation, victory depends on who is superior in position-taking thinking.

  1. Attribute Reverse Method The attributes of things are often multi-directional. An event can be understood from different angles. Even the same event, observed from different angles, can have multiple natures, and these natures can transform into each other. As Qian Zhongshu said, "Using wine to cure wine, using poison to counter poison, bean stalks burning beans, eagle feathers shooting eagles," which contains great contradictions. For example: good-bad, big-small, strong-weak, have-have not, move-still, many-few, cold-hot, fast-slow, increase-decrease, life-death, out-in, beginning-end, water-fire, etc.

Once, a fire broke out on the American prairie, and the flames, driven by the wind, mercilessly devoured everything. A group of tourists happened to be playing on the prairie. Seeing the fire approaching, they panicked. Fortunately, an old hunter was with them. Seeing the danger, he shouted, "For all of us to survive, listen to me now." He asked everyone to pull up the dry grass in front of them to clear an open space.

As the fire grew closer and the situation became critical, the old hunter remained calm. He had everyone stand on one side of the clearing, while he stood on the side near the fire. Seeing the fire approaching like a dragon, he decisively set fire at his feet. In an instant, a wall of fire rose beside him, spreading in three directions. A miracle occurred: the fire he set did not follow the wind but moved against the wind toward the other fire. When the two fires met, the flames suddenly weakened and gradually extinguished.

After the tourists escaped danger, they asked him about the principle of fighting fire with fire. The old hunter smiled and said, "Today, although the wind blows this way, near the fire, the airflow still blows toward the flames. I set this fire to seize the moment and use that airflow to rush toward the other fire. This fire burned the nearby grass, so the other fire could no longer spread here, and we were saved."

Reverse thinking always helps us find a way out of difficulties. Peter Norton is also a person who used reverse thinking to achieve success. He once sold his computer software for $300 million. This software, called "Undelete," applied reverse thinking to recover accidentally deleted computer files. Accidentally deleting files is a nightmare for computer users, and recovering deleted files is a "delusion" for many, but only Norton took a step forward, turning the seemingly absurd delusion into reality. In Norton's thinking, advance and retreat, out and in, have and have not can achieve new unity and transformation at a higher level.

  1. Causal Reverse Method In reverse thinking, the method of "reversing cause and effect" is extremely widely applied in life. Sometimes, a certain bad outcome can, under certain conditions, be transformed into a favorable factor. The key is how to think in reverse.

The most brilliant case of reversing cause and effect should be human vaccine research. In the fight against catastrophic disasters, there is no doubt that the only effective magic weapon is the reverse thinking of reversing cause and effect—using poison to counter poison, returning the other's method to the other.

As early as the Song Dynasty in China, people began to think of using the result of things to counter the cause. According to literature, people collected dried scabs from smallpox patients, ground them into powder, and blew a little into the nasal cavities of smallpox patients. Later, this smallpox immunization technique was introduced to Europe via Persia and Turkey. It was not until 1798 that the English doctor Jenner used the same principle to develop a safer cowpox vaccine, making a decisive contribution to the complete eradication of smallpox.

In fact, vaccine research strategy is only a symbol. More disease research and broader life events also cannot do without the reverse thinking method of reversing cause and effect.

  1. Psychological Reverse Method The China Economic Times once published an article titled "Reflections on 'Cheap When Selling, Expensive When Buying'": Five years ago, I went to a remote mountain village for an interview. Seeing that the fields were all planted with local old varieties of rapeseed, with thin stalks and short plants, I asked the accompanying township head why the farmers weren't encouraged to plant hybrid rapeseed. The township head looked helpless and said, "The farmers don't believe it!"

So I told him the following story: When potatoes were first introduced to France, French farmers were unwilling to plant them. Someone came up with a strange trick: they posted fully armed soldiers day and night around the experimental potato fields. Seeing this, the surrounding farmers thought the crops must be extremely precious. So they often sneaked into the fields and planted the stolen potatoes in their own fields. Gradually, potatoes became a widely grown crop among French farmers.

Not long ago, I received a letter from that township head. It said that four villages near the mountains had become goat breeding bases, and they were large! When I went there, I learned that the township had decided to select only one household in each of the four villages to raise Boer goats, and no more! To be cautious, the township head led the selection team. Before the selection, the township proposed many harsh conditions. After a whole month of work, the township introduced 100 goats for each of the four households, not one more. The township also organized joint defense team members from the four villages to take turns guarding the goats. After the goats gave birth, the township said they were for export and did not allow the goat owners to sell privately. Neighboring farmers were envious, so they asked relatives and friends, sneaked into the goat owners' homes at night, and begged to buy a few Boer goats secretly. Now every household in these villages raises goats, and per capita income has exceeded 10,000 yuan.

Undoubtedly, human psychology is always like this—all prohibitions imply reinforcement. Many paradoxical psychological laws also seem to indirectly prove the existence of reverse thinking:

  • Baker's Law: You don't want any of what you can provide.
  • Boken's Law: The farther from the aisle, the later the audience arrives.
  • Gleason's Law: A tiny hole will eventually empty the largest container, unless it is deliberately for drainage, in which case it will clog.
  • Juster's Law: The older the car, the crazier it drives.
  • Mayr's Law: If it weren't for the last minute, nothing would get done.
  • Weber's Law: If you find a parking spot easily, you'll lose your car.
  1. Psychological Contrarian Method The psychological contrarian method means that in the process of thinking, you discard your own limitations, first explore the other's thoughts, and then act against the other's way of thinking.

The "contrarian" in psychological reverse is not the "repeated exchange" in the positional reverse method, but rather "doing the opposite." Although in the positional reverse method you have already learned to figure out the other's psychology and then make countermeasures against it, in the psychological contrarian method, you need to go further: make the other follow your train of thought, making the choice you need them to make.

Making the other follow you sounds as difficult as climbing to the sky, but if you try to continuously train yourself to figure out the other's thinking path and reverse its logic, you will gradually find that mastering this method is not difficult. Try the following true story. Can you react quickly in the same way?

In 1956, after Stalin's death, Khrushchev, at a congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, again exposed and criticized a series of errors such as Stalin's expansion of the purges. Someone from the audience passed a note to Khrushchev on the podium. Khrushchev opened it and saw written: "Where were you then?" This question was sharp and hit the core. At this moment, Khrushchev had to answer. Avoiding it would be equivalent to admitting his cowardice and selfishness.

If you were Khrushchev, what would you do?

To solve this problem, you must use some fact to tell everyone that your current behavior is genuinely correcting mistakes, while also making everyone understand and tacitly accept why you couldn't correct it earlier. You must set up an "inevitable choice of two," meaning you must make everyone, within the situation you set, make the same choice as you. Through this explanation, can you already feel the thread? At this point, you should think: after "contrarian," you need "reverse." Instead of explaining with words, let everyone experience it personally, making them understand that there was no choice. You see, mastering the psychological contrarian method is achieved step by step like this.

Khrushchev picked up the note, read the question aloud, then looked at the audience and said, "Who wrote this note? Please stand up immediately and come to the stage!" No one stood up. The hall was so quiet that a pin dropping could be heard. Everyone's heart was pounding, not knowing what Khrushchev was going to do. The note writer was even more anxious and regretful, knowing clearly that if Khrushchev really investigated, he would find out who wrote it. Then Khrushchev repeated loudly: "Will the person who wrote the note please stand up!" The hall remained silent. After a few minutes, Khrushchev finally spoke again, calmly: "Well, I'll answer your question. I was sitting where you are sitting now."

You see, Khrushchev used his current power to recreate the environment he was in, letting everyone present truly experience his choice, and from another angle, telling everyone his helplessness.

By extension, psychological contrarian thinking embodies a spirit of "anticipating the enemy first, seizing the initiative." The strategy of "If the enemy does not move, I do not move; if the enemy moves, I move" may show magnanimity and caution, placing oneself in a defensive position first before attacking, but in response, it always loses the initiative because decisions must be based on others' actions. Psychological contrarian thinking, on the other hand, is based on predicting and feeding back the other's psychology, and laying out plans accordingly, attacking where they are least prepared, allowing you to respond freely and even counterattack.

  1. Janus-style Thinking Method (Opposition-Complementarity Method) "Janus" is a two-faced god in Roman mythology. Legend has it that his head has two faces, one looking at the past and the other at the future. You can often see him on ancient Roman coins, holding a key in one hand and a staff in the other, standing between the past and the future.

The Janus-style thinking method aims to grasp the two opposing sides of the thinking object, consciously follow the reverse path to study problems, and be good at organically combining forward thinking and reverse thinking. It requires people to not only follow the normal way of thinking when dealing with problems but also to go against the flow from the opposite direction, seeing the complementarity of both sides.

The first step in Janus-style thinking training is based on "reverse" awareness. You must first learn to recognize that everything consists of two aspects, and the problem you are facing now must have its opposite. That is, when you face a difficult problem, you may face its conditions, questions, and answers. What you need to do is reshuffle the composition of the problem and consider it in reverse. For more exciting content, please add platform: a2676333820

The second step in Janus-style thinking training is to grasp the interpenetrating relationship between opposites to achieve a qualitative leap in problem-solving. Always remember: opposites exist for coexistence. Through this introduction, the threads of "reverse" and "complementarity" are already faintly visible. Now look at the following small problem, and follow this thread to learn and grasp how to embed and complement opposing parts.

What kind of 18-story building can stand firm during an earthquake?

Don't think this is a brain teaser, nor a purely architectural problem—you may not be able to think of suitable materials and structures due to professional limitations, but you can grasp the correct approach. The answer is in the following report.

On December 23, 1972, a major earthquake struck Managua, the capital of Nicaragua. A modern city was reduced to rubble in an instant, with over 10,000 deaths. The houses in 511 blocks in the epicenter were mercilessly destroyed. Surprisingly, in the ruins, the 18-story Bank of America building stood firm, while the street in front of it showed a vertical displacement of 1/2 inch! Such a miracle caused a sensation worldwide.

The creator of the miracle was the famous structural engineering expert, Chinese-American Lin Tongyan. When designing the Bank of America building, he tried to design a building that would not collapse during an earthquake, but he could not solve the problem of building materials deforming or cracking under strong external forces. Just as he was at a loss, he suddenly thought: instead of focusing on the positive side (because focusing on the positive cannot completely solve the earthquake-proof problem), why not focus on the negative side?

So, after multiple screenings and calculations, he adopted a frame-tube structure. This structure is different from ordinary structures and has the characteristics of combining rigidity and flexibility: under normal stress, the building has sufficient rigidity to withstand external forces; when subjected to sudden strong forces, the cracking of some secondary components in the internal structure suddenly reduces the overall rigidity, thereby greatly reducing the seismic force borne by the main components' materials. This design idea of using the loss of cracking in secondary components to avoid building collapse broke through the conventional thinking framework and the positive thinking model of "rigidity against rigidity," thus creating a rare miracle in the world.

Here, Lin Tongyan chose to protect with "destruction." Protection and destruction are completely opposite, but that doesn't mean they cannot complement each other. If unremitting protection cannot achieve the ultimate goal of "protection," then using "destruction" to "protect" is the essence of Janus-style thinking. Making "protection" and "destruction" interdependent, actively designing things that will be destroyed in strong earthquakes, precisely achieves the purpose of protection. Under the premise that the main building remains intact, the destruction of secondary internal structures actually allows the building to avoid the ravages of strong earthquakes.

The third step in Janus-style thinking training is based on a solid grasp of the first two steps. This step requires analyzing the opposing sides and then reconstructing them.

  1. Disadvantage Utilization Method The main idea of the disadvantage utilization method is "disadvantages are advantages." Utilizing disadvantages first means experiencing the extraordinary from the ordinary. It emphasizes considering how to directly use these disadvantages, achieving "turning harm into benefit." That is, for the discovered disadvantages in the target object, in addition to adopting the "improvement" strategy, it is more desirable to achieve a lower-cost "direct utilization."

You can follow the steps below to search for "disadvantages" around you and practice reverse utilization:

  • Determine an object, which can be a thing, an event, or even a person;
  • List as many disadvantages and shortcomings of this object as possible (here you can use brainstorming, conduct extensive research, seek others' opinions, etc.);
  • Classify and organize the one or more disadvantages presented to you;
  • Analyze each disadvantage and seek the possibility of turning waste into treasure and turning harm into benefit (the most critical step here is "reverse," using reverse thinking to handle these disadvantages).

Many photographers, when taking group photos, always count "3, 2, 1," but although people try to keep their eyes open wide, some always blink at the count of 1.

Later, someone came up with an idea. Everyone was skeptical and even felt it was a bit strange, but when the photo was developed, indeed no one had their eyes closed. Can you guess the idea?

Let's review our thinking path:

  • "Making everyone not blink before the shutter is pressed" is our research object;
  • If eyes are kept open for too long, they need to blink to replenish moisture, making this event inevitably have a disadvantage;
  • Against this disadvantage, the opposite is not keeping eyes open for a long time, that is, closing eyes.

The answer is out: the new method is to have everyone close their eyes, then open them together after counting "3, 2, 1."

Did you think of it? Disadvantages may be advantages themselves.

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