Backward Thinking Skill

 

When I was a child, my mom trained me to button up from the shirttail instead of top down from the neck. When I grew up, my dad brought me to explore the dark market. He said that sometimes if you want to get the work done effectively, you should understand the grassroots. 

Most people like to think and move ahead rather than move back, but backward thinking doesn't mean thinking to the past or doing things slow. It actually helps to achieve the goal instead.

Backward thinking is the way you think from the goal state to your initial state.

Forward thinking is the way you think from the initial state to your goal state.

How does it work?

Mathematics is the dominant subject in using backward thinking skill. Most cubs were taught to count from 1 to 100, whereas I was trained to count down from 100 to 1. 

Math exercise normally was designed 1+1=?, which is forward thinking skill but when you begin your working life, you would be tested with 1+x=2. The question is what is the value of x ? and that is backward thinking. Kids from regular school doing regular forward thinking skill test would miss their future from their school teaching system. The way to prevent this is changing the school system by teaching the kids both forward and backward thinking skills since they were kindergarten.

Backward thinking skill is useful for life since when you are a kid to when you work and until you die. For me, when I have assignments, the first step I would do is to check the due date and plan backwards until the present time and check the priorities and the amount of work. If it's not in time, I would have to organize my working stage or start doing the first assignment early to increase the working time. Backward thinking skill leads to do more than one work at the same time or multi tasking. You will finish faster.

In conclusion if you do not begin at the end, you end at the beginning. That's the core value of the backward thinking skill.