In his own words · Inversion

“Darwin's result was due in large measure to his working method, which violated all my rules for misery and particularly emphasized a backward twist in that he always gave priority attention to evidence tending to disconfirm whatever cherished and hard-won theory he already had.”

— Charlie Munger · Harvard School (Los Angeles) commencement address, "Prescriptions for Guaranteed Misery in Life," June 1986 (Poor Charlie's Almanack) · 1986

Verified. Sourced to Harvard School (Los Angeles) commencement address, "Prescriptions for Guaranteed Misery in Life," June 1986 (Poor Charlie's Almanack) · 1986.

Munger characterizing Darwin's habit of giving priority to disconfirming evidence — not a Darwin quote.

Where he said it

More Munger on Inversion

“Invert, always invert.”

Crediting the mathematician Carl Jacobi; Poor Charlie's Almanack

Munger repeatedly attributed the maxim to Jacobi.

“All I want to know is where I'm going to die, so I'll never go there.”

Poor Charlie's Almanack

A favorite Munger formulation of inversion; he often presented it as a borrowed country-saying. It became the title of Peter Bevelin's 2016 book.

All inversion quotes