Margen
Researchers at the University of Virginia asked hundreds of people to improve things: a Lego structure, an essay, a travel itinerary, a recipe. The pattern was always the same: the vast majority improved by adding — bricks, paragraphs, stops, ingredients. Hardly anyone tried removing something, even when removing was faster, cheaper and objectively better.
It isn't laziness: it's a blind spot. Faced with a problem, the mind generates additive solutions first; subtractive ones often never even come up for consideration. That's why calendars fill up, houses overflow, texts swell and rules pile up without anyone having truly chosen them.
The antidote is to turn subtraction into a mandatory question. Before improving anything — a text, a routine, a project, a presentation — first ask yourself: what can I remove? And only then: what can I add?
Often the answer will still be to add. But when the solution lies in removing, it tends to be the most elegant one of all. Fewer parts, fewer steps, less noise: more margin.