For every one comment I get on a course script at work suggesting I remove something, I get four or five recommending I add this idea or that one. It’s normal. It’s human.
We want to add. Create. Make something out of nothing. The problem is that in most creative projects—which, nowadays, is basically all projects—the nothing is what gives shape to the elements that remain. Removing the inessential is what makes the creation shine, not the addition of more bells and whistles.
Half of what makes Michelangelo’s David astonishing are all the bits of marble he chipped away. If all the stone was still there, it would be a square block of rock, nothing more.
There’s a reason Lego sets have a fixed number of parts and an order for assembling them. Sure, you can keep tacking on more bricks after you’re done, but would you really add anything to the original model? Or, ironically, take away from it with each next piece you clip on?
Subtracting is hard. It doesn’t feel nice. You don’t get much credit for it. How is anyone supposed to know what distraction you saved them from if, in the end, no one can see it? But subtracting is like polishing: It smoothes rough edges and brings the creation to light.
Instead of throwing out more ideas no one has time to execute, today, suggest a subtraction. Remove a piece of what you’re working on, and see how it feels. Sometimes, the greatest contribution we can make is to remove what’s not needed.
