Recently, I’ve been stumbled to several stuff that are related to subtracting. Most of them are material, but it feels those are deeper than just material stuff.
I believe most of us often heard the saying: less is more or less but better. I have heard and read about it quite a lot in various context. I think it’s not really easy to understand if we don’t experience it by ourselves.
One of my favorite designer is the legendary Dieter Rams. In an interview he said:
The important principle in design in my mind is to remove the non-essential in order to bring out the essential. Good design means to me the least possible design.
Yet, to remove, or to subtract, is not easy.
One close example for me are apps in smartphone. How often we think we need have smartphone with more features? How often we think we need to install more applications to our smartphone? I do often forget to ask myself, what will I use my phone for? Most of the times, just the basic. To chat, have some video calls, to communicate thru emails and social media, to take some pictures, and to listen to music. Not so long time ago, I wanted to always have the best phone available. Sometime I justify my thought that I want the phone to be long lasting. But, I still ended up tempted to keep upgrading things I have. I was tempted with all the new features.
The other example is during my job-seeking. At the beginning of my job-seeking, I thought I need to apply to more companies. I was afraid I missed out some opportunities out there. Being out of job is far from familiar for me. In the process, I realized that actually I was not having a great focus by keep applying to more opportunities. I realized I need more focus to have some sense of where I can continue develop my skills next. I do need to be honest, because I also have some expectations and responsibilities. How sure am I to move to a totally different industry? What are the important considerations? What can I do to thrive and enjoy to work on something new? I try to keep asking better questions to myself. I know that I need to be a little bit more specific and focus more with opportunities that have a close proximity to my skills and my needs.
I might need to narrow my focus. This visualization is a good thing to think about.
Another simple example is on things to watch on Netflix. Have you ever felt that famous paradox of choice? We have tons of movies and series to watch on our fingertips yet we often felt bored and don’t know what to enjoy.
I haven’t read or watch the full series of Marie Kondo’s work. But, I have tried to apply the idea to my daily life. As usual, it’s commonly easier to start with things on surface level like clothes. The pandemic teaches us that we don’t really need much stuff. Sometime, some external factors might help us to subtract too. It might felt a little forceful. But, I guess adapting is part of our life too, right? At the moment I realize I need to reduce purchasing some physical book that I don’t have high interest to read, some physical music record, and some other hobbies.
Recently, I started to try to get a little deeper on subtracting. I know it’s still hard to be honest on how we manage our daily activity. Is it easy to subtract things that distract us? Do we really want to be focus on the important things? Have we be honest on what are important for ourselves?
I am sorry if that’s too many questions to ponder.
For a little bit more scientific curiosity, I discovered this video about subtracting. The video give a glimpse of work by Leidy Klotz, Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less.
Who knows, maybe the wisdom shared by Lao Tzu is true.
To attain knowledge, add things every day.
To attain wisdom, subtract things every day.
Do those ideas intrigue you?
What are you struggling to subtract?
Do you have any story related to subtracting you’d like to share?
Please don’t hesitate to comment.
For me, these articles are also good if you are interested more about the idea of subtracting.
