--- title: Charlie Munger on the Value of Thinking Backward and Forward description: It's a mental trickery that will help improve your thinking canonical: https://time.com/3726624/charlie-munger-thinking-backward-forward/ author: Shane Parrish article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-03-04T13:30:45.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T08:14:28.616Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Charlie Munger on the Value of Thinking Backward and Forward og:description: It's a mental trickery that will help improve your thinking og:url: https://time.com/3726624/charlie-munger-thinking-backward-forward/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4e345f2782ce7ff4/698781762dce0144329ddca4/gettyimages_184598216-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: lightbulbs-head-chalkboard og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Charlie Munger on the Value of Thinking Backward and Forward twitter:description: It's a mental trickery that will help improve your thinking twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4e345f2782ce7ff4/698781762dce0144329ddca4/gettyimages_184598216-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Charlie Munger on the Value of Thinking Backward and Forward by [Shane Parrish](/author/shane-parrish/) ## Shane Parrish Mar 4, 2015 1:30 PM CUT  Ideas in Head on Blackboard Ideas in Head on BlackboardGetty Images by [Shane Parrish](/author/shane-parrish/) ## Shane Parrish Mar 4, 2015 1:30 PM CUT One of the [five simple notions to solve problems](http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2014/06/charlie-munger-notions/ "undefined") is the concept of [inversion](http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2013/10/inversion/ "undefined"). To solve problems we need to look at them both forward and backward. But how does this look in practice? Let me give you an example that Charlie Munger gave during a speech. Munger liked to give his family little puzzles. And one of the puzzles he gave his family was: --- > “” --- Any ideas? How would you answer this? “In my family,” Munger said, “not a lot of light bulbs were flashing.” Except for one. --- > “” --- Flipping one’s thinking both forward and backward is a powerful sort of mental trickery that will help improve your thinking. **_This piece originally appeared on_** [**_Farnam Street_**](http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/ "undefined")**_._** **Join over 50,000 readers and get a free weekly update via email** [**here**](http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/newsletter/ "undefined")**.** ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3726624/charlie-munger-thinking-backward-forward/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3726624/charlie-munger-thinking-backward-forward/"},"headline":"Charlie Munger on the Value of Thinking Backward and Forward","datePublished":"2015-03-04T13:30:45.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T08:14:28.616Z","description":"It's a mental trickery that will help improve your thinking","url":"https://time.com/3726624/charlie-munger-thinking-backward-forward/","keywords":["Psychology"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4e345f2782ce7ff4/698781762dce0144329ddca4/gettyimages_184598216-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Shane Parrish","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/shane-parrish/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4e345f2782ce7ff4/698781762dce0144329ddca4/gettyimages_184598216-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"lightbulbs-head-chalkboard","caption":"lightbulbs-head-chalkboard","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/psychology/","name":"Psychology"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3726624/charlie-munger-thinking-backward-forward/","name":"Charlie Munger on the Value of Thinking Backward and Forward"}}]}] ```