Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to solve by subtracting. In life, our
Speaker 1: bias is often to add, but taking away can be
Speaker 1: just as useful. I recently read a fascinating book by
Speaker 1: Light E. Clots called Subtract The Untapped Science of less.
Speaker 1: Klotz has built his career studying how people approach problems.
Speaker 1: In particular, he noticed an interesting phenomenon while building a
Speaker 1: lego bridge with his young son. The two sides they
Speaker 1: had constructed were uneven, so Clots went to grab an
Speaker 1: extra brick for the short side. As he was doing so,
Speaker 1: he saw that his son had taken a brick away
Speaker 1: from the tall side, which of course solved the problem
Speaker 1: just as easily. He wondered why he had automatically thought
Speaker 1: to add a brick. He put the same test to
Speaker 1: various other people and found that the overwhelming human bias
Speaker 1: is to solve the problem by adding a piece rather
Speaker 1: than taking one away. This is an interesting bias because
Speaker 1: in many cases subtracting seems like a better solution. Fewer
Speaker 1: materials cost less than more materials. When it comes to
Speaker 1: things that take time, time is an absolutely limited resource.
Speaker 1: When we add things to our schedule, we cut off
Speaker 1: the opportunity to do other things. Clot cites examples in
Speaker 1: his book From the Real World, We're Subtracting wasn't the
Speaker 1: obvious solution, but turned out to be a better one.
Speaker 1: For instance, I always love walking along the Embarcadero whenever
Speaker 1: I visit San Francisco. There used to be a freeway there.
Speaker 1: The city only took down that freeway because of an earthquake.
Speaker 1: With all the traffic and congestion in San Francisco, getting
Speaker 1: rid of a road might seem a bit crazy, and
Speaker 1: yet doing so massively boosted property values and use of
Speaker 1: the San Francisco waterfront. Yes, traffic is bad, put traffic
Speaker 1: is always bad. People figure something out. In any case.
Speaker 1: When you know that the bias is to add rather
Speaker 1: than subtract, you can take steps to counter that bias.
Speaker 1: This has obvious ramifications with new products. Rather than add
Speaker 1: more features, maybe things would work better if you took
Speaker 1: some features away and made the ones that remain really awesome.
Speaker 1: When you think about adding something to your schedule, think
Speaker 1: first about what you might take away. Perhaps people are
Speaker 1: missing deadlines with a project. Rather than schedule more check ins,
Speaker 1: maybe you should cancel as many meetings as possible so
Speaker 1: people have time to do their jobs. Maybe instead of
Speaker 1: sending more emails to employees about the various benefits they
Speaker 1: could be using, you could limit this down to one
Speaker 1: email so people have time to use their benefits rather
Speaker 1: than sorting through their inboxes. Rather than making forms longer
Speaker 1: to get more useful information from applicants, make them shorter
Speaker 1: so people can answer a few questions well. That can
Speaker 1: give you useful information without confusing things. I have often
Speaker 1: noticed this with writing. I like to think that I
Speaker 1: already write tight, and yet whatever I have said is
Speaker 1: almost always better after I have subtracted ten to of
Speaker 1: the words. I could keep trying to explain things to
Speaker 1: make them more clear, but they tend to naturally be
Speaker 1: more clear with the needless words omitted. So today, as
Speaker 1: you think about your various choices, look for situations where
Speaker 1: your first thought is what to add. Maybe you do
Speaker 1: need to add something, but maybe you need less of something.
Speaker 1: Try to look at both angles. There is great power
Speaker 1: in subtracting. But even when adding and subtracting are both
Speaker 1: reasonable options. Subtracting might produce a simpler and more economical solution,
Speaker 1: and there's something very satisfying about that. In the meantime,
Speaker 1: this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making
Speaker 1: the most of our time. M Hey everybody, I'd love
Speaker 1: to hear from you. You can send me your tips,
Speaker 1: your questions, or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter,
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Speaker 1: the number four, then Breakfast p o D. You can
Speaker 1: also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast podcast at
Speaker 1: i heeart media dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled
Speaker 1: out with all the letters. Thanks so much, I look
Speaker 1: forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio,
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