Subtract
The Untapped Science of Less
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
"You need to read this book." —Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author
“A great book changes the world you live in, revealing mysteries you didn't even know were there. This is a great book." —Sendhil Mullainathan, MacArthur fellow and author of Scarcity
“Klotz shows us how deleting things from our lives can lead us to exciting new places.”—Carol Dweck, author of Mindset
We pile on “to-dos” but don’t consider “stop-doings.” We create incentives for good behavior, but don’t get rid of obstacles to it. We collect new-and-improved ideas, but don’t prune the outdated ones. Every day, across challenges big and small, we neglect a basic way to make things better: we don’t subtract. Leidy Klotz’s pioneering research shows us what is true whether we’re building Lego models, cities, grilled-cheese sandwiches, or strategic plans: Our minds tend to add before taking away, and this is holding us back.
But we have a choice—our blind spot need not go on taking its toll. Subtract arms us with the science of less and empowers us to revolutionize our day-to-day lives and shift how we move through the world. More or less.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Klotz (Sustainability Through Soccer), a University of Virginia engineering and architecture professor, makes a bold but poorly executed case for the benefits of a minimalist approach to life. Klotz argues that when one is seeking to make changes, the natural instinct is to add (more tasks, more content, more objects) while overlooking solutions that involve doing or having less. Unfortunately, Klotz gets lost in the weeds, and instead of supplying practical suggestions, turns his attention to examples of minimalism in art and science. While some illustrations of how excess is prized come off as too amorphous (Keynesian economic theories or the rise of the Anthropocene), his arguments are most memorable when they draw on the world of design, such as in his explanations of the genius of the cement block and the Vietnam Memorial. Some ideas are intriguing, with shades of Cal Newport's minimalism and Daniel Kahneman's paradigm-shifting approach to psychology, but Klotz's reasoning is hindered by repetition, tangents, and philosophical overreach, such as reflections on "interdependent multitudes" and the duality of the Hindu goddess Kali. This overfilled and underbaked take on a fertile topic makes for frustrating reading.
