Spend more time gathering info than distilling what’s there
Start more initiatives/activities than we phase out
Add new rules than we take away
Think more about providing for the disadvantaged than removing unearned privilege
We neglect option of subtraction
Harder to see, often harder to implement
Ex. divesting in apartheid vs donating to anti-apartheid
The difference between less and subtraction: the former is an end state, the latter is an action
Can reach “less” by doing nothing, but the more rewarding kind comes from actively subtracting
Part I: Seeing More
1. Overlooking Less: Legos, the Lab, and Beyond
Many experiments → we don’t subtract as much as we add. But why?
Do we choose to add, or not even see the possibility of subtracting?
Is adding the more accessible choice? Yes: giving people more time to think of ideas, or reminding them they can subtract → more likely to do so; decreasing bandwidth w distracting tasks → less likely to subtract
2. The Biology of More: Our Adding Instincts
Intrinsic need to deal with our environment to feel competent (Richard White, 1959) → easier to show competence by adding
Have an innate sense of more and less, before know how to mathematically add and subtract
We judge differences btw small quantities as more significant than differences btw large ones— more based on relative comparison (analogous to how other senses like vision & hearing work!)
When approximating, precision depends not on final amt but on quantity used to get there
Using set schema limits possibility of subtraction (you can’t have negative items), vs a distance schema (can have negative temps)
Can reframe some scenarios to envision more subtractive options, such as with investing/divesting
Still, many instances of subtractive thinking at play in “nature”
First instances of subtractive tool building ←→ development of abstract thinking
Synaptic pruning of neuronal networks
3. The Temple and the City: Adding Brings Civilization, and Civilization Brings More
How civilization both arose from and is defined by the pursuit of more
Recent theory: development of material culture (building monuments, temples) can before development of civilization (and agriculture, etc.)
Field dependence: how much the “surroundings” affect our perception of a situation, also shapes whether we think about/choose subtraction
Seeing the field → less likely to neglect subtraction
Interesting to consider cultural differences, but evidence shows subtraction neglect is robust across groups and situations
More important = realization that we each contain multitudes, have independent and interdependent “selves” → can have access to different views of a situation, see the subtractive possibilities
Goal = be able to view adding and subtracting as complementary, not either-or
Many problems arise when we try to resolve false contradictions— confining people/cultures into rigid categories
4. More-ality: Time, Money, and the Modern Gospel of Adding
Economic forces priming is to add
Adding square footage to increase personal weslth
Keynesian economics of virtuous cycles of spending
Time famine: filling our time with more and more; seeing the limit of subtraction as “saying no” instead of actually removing things; getting caught in the business trap
Ringing the “no-bell” vs making a “stop-doing” list
Buying time (eg. by removing unpleasant events) → greater happiness than adding pleasant things
Part II: Sharing Less
5. Noticeable Less: Finding and Sharing Subtraction
Post-satisficeable less: going the extra mental steps beyond “good enough” (which usually came from adding to not good enough) often involves subtraction and leads to a cleaner, more efficient solution
Have to continue to noticeable less (which is perhaps beyond the equivalent amt of addition)
Ex. Kate Orff and redesign of Lexington
Can try to change valence around subtraction by using different words: “carve,” “reveal,” “clean”
Loss aversion: losing $100 feels more bad than gaining $100 feels good
But less ≠ loss! And reframing it can emphasize this
6. Scaling Subtraction: Using Less to Change the System
Dismantling racism = prime example of systemic subtraction
“Systemic racism” is redundant, as racism is institutional, structural, systemic → subtracting racism = changing the system
In complex systems, small changes via subtraction → big outcomes
All else equal, adding incentives for desired outcome is less effective than removing incentives for the problematic one (increasing vs relieving tension)
Kurt Koffka: “The whole is something else than the sun of its parts.”
Ex. removing a bridge can increase or decrease traffic, bc depends on so many complex variables like human behavior in addn to capacity
Subtracting unnecessary detail → helps us clarify places and ways to intervene → get at essence of our goal
Checklist for subtraction:
Subtract detail before trying to change the system (triage)
Persist to noticeable less (music)
Consider subtracting first (Jenga)
Reuse your subtractions! (donut holes)
7. A Legacy of Less: Subtracting in the Anthropocene
How to balance physical limits to growth (planetary boundaries) with urge to progress, innovate, improve quality of life?
Progress can come through subtraction
Lessons we can learn from principles of subtraction…
Add Remove as first R to Reduce, Reuse, Recycle → zero is not an unbreachable baseline
Cannot rely just on climate engineering (ex. geoengineering) without also considering subtractive measures
Noticeability challenge: hard to see reduction in emissions! Important to visualize changes (or lack thereof) to get feedback)
Move beyond GDP growth as a measure of success — doesn’t account for useful less, and includes harmful more
8. From Information to Wisdom: Learning by Subtracting
Pandemic of information fatigue… Herbert Simon → “a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.”
Recent studies showing that poor people do indeed make worse decisions— but because of the mental scarcity from being poor, not leading to being poor
Strategies of storing, summarizing, sorting can all help, but only selecting is a truly subtractive approach
Ex. filtering out unusable data (no use → not information)
Opportunity cost of information— what to keep and what to get rid of?
Tips!
Take less notes :) Trust yourself to remember the important stuff!
Prune concepts down to their essence (mechanics is all F=ma)
Subtracting is required to make revolutionary change in ideas— and using analogies can help!