Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less

Monthly Book Review

All of us have encountered some form of the idea that “less is more” or “less is better.” Whether it is decluttering our houses or decluttering our calendars, most of understand that we shouldn’t always be adding.

But why is it so hard to subtract?

That is the premise of the book Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less.

In this book, Leidy Klotz explores the concept and value of subtraction in various aspects of life, arguing that in our culture, which often emphasizes "more" and "addition," the art of subtracting can be overlooked or undervalued.

Klotz, an engineer by training, delves into how the principle of subtraction can be applied not just in physical design and engineering, but also in our personal lives, decision-making processes, and organizational strategies. The book brings together insights from various fields including psychology, design, and engineering, to make a case for why and how we can benefit from thinking about what we can remove or reduce, rather than always looking to add or increase.

As a product manager who creates new technology and features every day, I’m constantly bombarded with new things to add. And constantly have to balance that with things we either don’t do or actively take away. So I found this book a fascinating exploration, both professionally and personally.

So let’s dive into some important points.

Key Takeaways

We Overlook Subtraction

In an example that extends through the book, the author discusses building Lego bridges with his son.

“An epiphany in my thinking about less came when Ezra and I were building a bridge out of Legos. Because the support towers were different heights, we couldn’t span them, so I reached behind me to grab a block to add to the shorter tower. As I turned back toward the soon-to-be bridge, three-year-old Ezra was removing a block from the taller tower. My impulse had been to add to the short support, and in that moment, I realized it was wrong; taking away from the tall support was a faster and more efficient way to create a level bridge.”

It is not unusual that we overlook subtraction, or fail to consider subtraction as a viable option. The author discusses several experiments that they ran to explore how often people added versus subtracted in different circumstances. In the Lego scenario, “Only one out of sixty participants subtracted.”

In other experiments, they found this same thing, even when there wasn’t a specific context:

“Even in this decontextualized case, participants were more likely to add than subtract squares. And again, it wasn’t even close. Just 20 percent of participants were more likely to subtract to transform the grids.”

We seem to always overlook subtracting or removing to reach a certain goal. As the book says:

“It’s not just that we accept objectively worse results because we subjectively like adding, it’s that we fail to even consider subtraction in the first place.”

But why is that? Let’s look at our bias for adding.

We have a Bias to Add

We have a natural bias to add rather than subtract. This intuitively makes sense. Having more is generally good.

And the book argues that we have an intrinsic need to add.