Let’s blow it out.
1. The deep reason removal is powerful: almost nobody does it
When humans try to improve something, we almost always add:
- Add features
- Add steps
- Add tools
- Add commitments
A series of experiments published in Nature showed that when people were asked to improve things — Lego bridges, written plans, grid patterns, etc. — they defaulted to adding pieces instead of removing them, even when removing was clearly better and simpler.
Follow‑up work has found the same pattern in other domains: people and even AIs give “do more” advice far more often than “do less / stop this,” especially in mental health and life advice.
Leidy Klotz’s book Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less pulls all this together: subtraction is a chronically missed option, not just in personal life but in architecture, business, and systems design.
Translation:
Most people are playing the “more” game. If you deliberately bias yourself toward removing first, you’re automatically operating in rarer, less crowded territory. That’s your edge.
2. Addition vs. Subtraction: the mental model
Think of every situation like this:
- Addition = more stuff, more friction, more complexity.
- Subtraction = removal of what’s weak, noisy, confusing, or dead weight.
When you ask:
“What should I add?”
you get:
- More features in your app
- More gear in your camera bag
- More tasks on your todo list
- More obligations in your schedule
When you ask:
“What can I remove — without losing the essence?”
you get:
- Fewer but clearer features
- Cleaner frames
- A shorter, sharper task list
- More space, focus, and energy
Your mantra becomes:
Protect the essence. Subtract the rest.
3. Design & aesthetics: removal makes things
readable
Product & UI design
Why do simple interfaces feel so powerful?
Because good designers ruthlessly remove:
- Extra buttons
- Redundant menus
- Cute but confusing options
Teams that don’t subtract end up with “feature bloat” — too many functions, too little clarity. Product thinking around subtraction has become mainstream enough that entire book reviews of Subtract focus on the idea that we underuse subtraction in design, even though it often improves usability and experience.
Architecture & cities
One of Klotz’s examples: removing the Embarcadero Freeway in San Francisco opened up the waterfront and improved the city instead of “losing” something.
In architecture, the move from over‑decorated facades to clean lines wasn’t an absence of design — it was the design. Subtraction became the style.
Photography (your home turf)
In photography, subtraction is everything:
- Move closer = remove irrelevant background.
- Use one prime lens = remove infinite choice, gain stronger vision.
- Clean background = the subject punches harder.
- Crop ruthlessly = all killer, no filler.
You’re not “missing” things when you subtract from the frame; you’re revealing the thing that matters.
Composition is not what you include; it’s what you’re brave enough to exclude.
4. Productivity & life: your power move is
stop doing
Research around subtraction points out that “time famine” (feeling constantly overloaded) often comes from refusing to subtract obligations — we keep adding hacks instead of deleting commitments.
Instead of:
- New productivity apps
- New hacks
- New routines
The real wins usually come from:
- Cancelling recurring meetings that don’t matter
- Turning off 90% of notifications
- Saying no to “nice to have” projects
- Deleting social media you don’t truly care about
Klotz talks about “stop‑doing lists” as a core tool: list what you will no longer do so you can free up time, attention, and creative energy.
In mental health and advice giving, experiments show people overwhelmingly recommend “do more” (meditate, journal, read more, etc.), when often the highest‑impact move is subtractive: stop doomscrolling at 1 a.m., stop spending time with that one toxic friend, stop saying yes to every favor.
Subtractive productivity questions:
- What if I just stop doing this?
- What if this project never existed — would anything break?
- What if I removed this app / channel / input for 30 days?
5. Strategy & business: focus is subtraction with teeth
Look at Southwest Airlines: their long‑running strategy of using essentially a single aircraft family (Boeing 737s) simplifies training, maintenance, and scheduling, cutting costs and complexity compared to airlines juggling multiple aircraft types.
That’s strategic subtraction:
- Fewer plane types
- Fewer failure modes
- Fewer variable costs
Same idea applies everywhere:
- Branding: One clear promise > 10 vague taglines.
- Startups: One killer product > eight “also we do this” side features.
- Career: One primary skill you’re known for > a scattered resume of half‑mastered directions.
When you subtract strategically, you’re not “shrinking.” You’re sharpening.
6. Why subtraction
feels
wrong (and why you should ignore that feeling)
Psychologically, subtraction is hard for a few reasons:
- We have an “addition bias.”
The Nature work showed we systematically search for additive changes more than subtractive ones by default. - Loss aversion.
Removing something feels like “losing” it, even if that thing is dead weight. Klotz’s book and summaries emphasize how we misread subtraction as loss, instead of seeing it as improvement. - Credit and ego.
A proposal that removes something can feel less “creative” than adding a shiny new piece. Commentators on the subtraction research point out that people expect less social credit for subtractive solutions. - Context and culture.
More recent research suggests subtraction neglect varies with task, culture, and age — but the pattern is still real enough that we need to consciously correct for it.
So your nervous system goes:
“If I remove this, am I being lazy, boring, or unambitious?”
The correct reframe:
Subtraction is an advanced move. Beginners pile on. Pros strip away.
7. A removal‑first playbook you can run daily
Here’s a concrete operating system you can use across art, business, and life.
Step 1 – Define the non‑negotiable core
Ask:
- What is the one thing this must do?
- What is the soul of this photo / project / day?
Everything not serving that core goes into the “maybe delete” bucket.
Step 2 – Ask the forbidden question first
Before you let yourself add anything, ask:
“What could I remove to solve this?”
Examples:
- Instead of adding a new habit app → delete 3 low‑value recurring commitments.
- Instead of adding a new button in your product → remove one that almost nobody uses.
- Instead of buying another lens → commit to mastering one focal length.
Step 3 – Run a subtraction sprint
Pick an area and do a focused purge:
- Creative:
Edit a photo series down to the strongest 10–20%. Kill the “pretty good” work so the bangers stand alone. - Schedule:
Cancel or rescope every meeting that doesn’t need your live presence. Replace with async notes. - Digital:
Unfollow, unsubscribe, uninstall. Clear mental RAM.
Step 4 – Use constraints as a weapon
Constraints are just “pre‑subtracted” realities you choose:
- One platform you publish to consistently.
- One main project per season.
- One main theme per body of work.
This isn’t limitation; it’s focus.
Step 5 – Add back only with intention
After you’ve subtracted:
- If something truly breaks, you can add back in a minimal form.
- But addition must justify itself now — subtraction is your default.
8. A daily subtraction ritual (super practical)
You can literally make this a 5–10 minute end‑of‑day ritual:
- List 3 things you removed today.
- An item from your bag
- A task from your list
- A line from an email or paragraph
- Write 1 thing you’ll stop doing tomorrow.
Make it small and specific (e.g., “No phone in bed,” “No checking email before 10 a.m.”). - For your art / work:
Take one piece (a photo, paragraph, layout) and remove one element:
- A color
- A layer
- A line
- A prop
Then sit with the result. Notice how it breathes.
Do this consistently and you literally rewire your instinct from “What can I add?” to:
“What can I remove to reveal the real thing?”
If you want, next we can zoom into one domain — photography, writing, product, or life systems — and build a brutal subtraction checklist just for that lane.