Good Intentions, Bad Results: The Power of Opposite Thinking

Sometimes, doing the exact opposite of what seems like the logical solution can actually be better for the very thing you’re trying to help.

Here are three examples:

👉 𝐑𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐥

The goal of rent control is to protect tenants from skyrocketing rents. But by keeping rents artificially low, it restricts movement in the rental market.

Long-term tenants hold onto their rent-controlled apartments, even when their needs change, because moving would mean paying market rates.

This limits the supply of available rental units. The reduced availability, met with high demand, then leads to even higher rents for others.

So perhaps counterintuitively, removing rent control can create a healthier, more flexible rental market.

👉 𝐒𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐌𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐚 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠

Imagine looking at your marketing attribution data and noticing that most sales come from branded searches on Google, and social media doesn’t appear to be driving any sales.

Logically, you may think to cut your social media budget and activity.

However, branded searches don’t happen in a vacuum—social media is often the seed that creates awareness and trust in your brand.

So instead of cutting back on social media, you might want to double down on it.

👉 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠

Lowering your prices may seem like the obvious way to attract more customers.

But in some cases, raising prices can make your product more appealing by signaling higher quality or exclusivity. In economics, there’s a term for this—Veblen Goods.

Brands like Apple and Tesla thrive on this principle—by pricing higher, they reinforce their premium positioning, which attracts customers willing to pay a premium.

So what may seem like the logical solution isn’t always the right one.

Sometimes, taking a step back to analyze the broader dynamics can reveal that the opposite approach is the key to achieving your goals.