July 17, 2024
“Perfection is achieved not when there’s nothing more to add, but when there’s nothing left to take away.” Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Why do we always focus on adding, instead of subtracting?
In all my years of managing programs and running businesses, no one ever started a meeting by asking, “What should we stop doing?”
Instead we filled whiteboards edge to edge on new tasks we should be doing.
As humans we ignore that we are working with limited resources of time, funding, and energy. We can’t keep doing more. Instead, we should do less, and do it better.
In a word: subtraction.
The power of subtracting is overlooked in every field. One concrete example:
Throughout human history, favored building materials came in solid blocks, of wood, rock, adobe, or cinder. In 1920, Harmon H. Palmer looked at bricks and asked himself, what if we subtracted from them? He invented the first hollow concrete block. By subtracting, he created a design that was lighter, more efficient, easier to handle, and added insulating air spaces. It led to a construction boom and is still a foundation for building homes, commercial buildings, and industrial facilities.
Anyone can build a bridge between two desks that will support an encyclopedia. But can you do it using only straws and clay?
Anyone can drop an egg from a second-story staircase in a big enough box. But can you drop a raw egg without breaking using only 4 ounces of packaging?
These were two actual challenges I used to do with my elementary students.
Subtraction is the whole philosophy of Jenga. What can you remove without causing the entire structure to collapse?
Surprisingly, in finding solutions, subtraction is seldom considered an option, and even less frequently, applied. On the NPR podcast Hidden Brain, university researcher Leidy Klotz shared experiments that showed this. In one case, they asked test subjects to improve on a simple 5-ingredient recipe. Only two out of 90 did so by removing an ingredient. (This brought to mind my friends who created a successful series of Four Ingredient Cookbooks.)
Overworked employee would do well to implement this simple technique: Next time your boss asks you to do “one more thing,” heartily agree, then add, “… and what ‘one thing’ do you want me to stop doing?” It’s a fair question, and if heard enough times will lead to a more manageable work load.
There are many areas we can add to quality of life by subtraction:
Subtract possessions to add space
So many uber adults are in the phase of clearing clutter. While building a family and career, we tend to acquire stuff that we might someday use. Well, someday has arrived and passed, and you know what, kids? We never used it. So we are subtracting it from our lives. Here, you can have it.
Subtract words to add meaning
The whole point of Strunk & White’s Elements of Style is to cut excess verbiage. Isn’t it weird that readers pay more attention when you say less?
Subtract notes to add melody
Again, when researchers asked subjects to improve a song, none of them considered removing notes. Remember, Mozart composed twelve variations on Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.
Subtract information to add knowledge
A counterintuitive study found that the quality of decisions went up when there was less information provided about the choices. A guest on the podcast was only earning Cs on his mechanical engineering tests, even after pulling all-nighters memorizing formulas. For his final, he realized that all of physics was based on Newton’s Second Law of Motion (Force = Mass x Acceleration). So he focused all his test prep on that equation. He ended up getting the highest score in class.
There you have it: Subtraction > Addition. Who knew the secret to success was taught in 1st grade math?