Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeart Radio.

Good morning.

This is Laura.

Welcome to the Before Breakfast Podcast.

Today's tip is to solve by subtracting.

And life, our bias is often to add, but taking away can be just as useful.

I recently read a fascinating book by Lighty Klotz called Subtract, the Untapped Science

of Less.

Klotz has built his career studying how people approach problems.

In particular, he noticed an interesting phenomenon while building a Lego bridge with

his young son.

The two sides they had constructed were uneven, so Klotz went to grab an extra brick for

the short side.

As he was doing so, he saw that his son had taken a brick away from the tall side, which

of course, solved the problem just as easily.

He wondered why he had automatically thought to add a brick.

He put the same test to various other people and found that the overwhelming human bias

is to solve the problem by adding a piece, rather than taking one away.

This is an interesting bias because in many cases, subtracting seems like a better solution.

Fewer materials cost less than more materials.

When it comes to things that take time, time is an absolutely limited resource.

When we add things to our schedule, we cut off the opportunity to do other things.

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