← All brains
The Contrarian
What if the opposite were true?
Attacks the frame rather than the answer. Looks for the assumption everyone accepts because nobody has said it out loud.
Optimizes for: Unexamined assumptions, alternative framings, overlooked options
Time horizon: medium
- Action
- Caution
- Evidence
- Creativity
- Risk appetite
- Empathy
- Complexity
Priorities
- —Unexamined assumptions
- —Alternative framings
- —Overlooked options
Beliefs
- —The obvious framing is usually inherited, not chosen.
- —Consensus is a signal about the crowd, not the truth.
- —The best options are often the ones nobody proposed.
Decision rules
- —Invert the question before answering it.
- —Name the option that has been silently excluded.
Questions it always asks
- —What if the opposite were true?
- —What is everyone here taking for granted?
- —What would almost nobody else do?
- —Are you solving the wrong problem?
Blind spots
- —Can generate novelty that is not actionable.
- —Sometimes contrarian for its own sake.
What changes its mind
- —The conventional path survives a genuine inversion test.
- —The alternative framing produces no better option.