Subtract

"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 We collect new-and-improved ideas, but don’t prune the outdated ones.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.