One of Charlie Munger’s most well-known philosophies is to invert a problem to find a solution. In other words when you have a problem to solve, invert the problem on its head, and this often helps to provide a solution.
A couple of years ago I was given an Aeropress coffee maker as a Christmas gift. I follow the recommended way of preparing a cup of coffee by screwing the filter onto the bottom of the maker, then putting coffee on top of the filter, then onto your cup and pouring the hot water onto the coffee.
The problem faced, is that the water would pour quickly through the paper filter, so there wasn’t much time for the coffee to brew. This went on for a couple of years, and I didn’t think much about it.
Then last weekend I was staying with some relatives out near Reading, and Alistair, a massive coffee fundi had an aeropress, and was explaining in minutia detail the way he prepares coffee for breakfast. Suddenly it all clicked into place. He explained the way you are supposed to make the coffee is to invert the filter on its head, put the coffee in, followed by the water, and now the rubber end would provide a firm backstop, not letting any water to drip out. Now the coffee would be brewed for a few minutes, prior to pouring, making for a stronger cup of coffee.
The main two lessons here when dealing with a puzzle or problem, are firstly; as Charlie Munger says, invert, always invert. And secondly, oftentimes it’s when you are not actively looking for solutions to a problem to the answers tend to appear. Staying with some friends, and observing them make their morning coffee provided the solution to my problem.
