First published in The Hindu, 4th January 2025

The ubiquity of New Year resolutions suggest that we continually try to better ourselves. Though there is nothing wrong in wanting to refine ourselves, we tend to equate more with better. In his thoughtful book, Subtract, Leidy Klotz argues that the tendency to add or accumulate is stronger than our proclivity to reduce and our collective “subtraction neglect” is pernicious to individuals and institutions. The fact that we conceive of learning as “knowledge construction” shows that we favouradding over taking away.

            In a series of studies, Klotz, Gabrielle Adams and their colleagues demonstrate our preference for adding across domains. In one study, the researchers gave participants a Lego structure with some loose pieces scattered, and asked them to change the original structure however they wished. Only 12% of participants removed Lego pieces, while the majority added. In another study, subjects were required to change “loops of musical notes.” Again, subjects showed a greater proclivity to add. Similarly, when participants were asked to better a written piece, the adders outnumbered the ones who deleted by a ratio of “three to one.” When asked to modify a recipe for a soup with five ingredients, only two of ninety participants removed ingredients.

Cognitive bias

            The researchers termed this preference for adding “subtraction neglect”and considered ways of reducing this cognitive bias. In a subsequent study, they cued half the participants that subtraction was a possibility. The cued group was more likely to subtract than the group that didn’t receive this hint. In another set of studies, people were less likely to subtract when they had limited mental bandwidth. When we have competing demands on our attention, we are more likely to opt for the default strategy of adding.

            Where does our instinct to add come from? Perhaps, Klotz surmises, our pre-historic “instinct to acquire food” possibly extends to consumptive habits in other domains as well, with the reward system in the brain priming us to acquire more and more. Further, our capitalist economic model of perpetual growth also fuels our appetite formore. Besides consuming material goods, we keep adding activities to packed schedules, and experience “time famine,” a term coined by sociologist Leslie Perlow, which can be detrimental to our well-being.

            In one study, Liz Dunn gave participants forty dollars over two consecutive weekends. On one weekend they were asked to buy things with the money. On the other weekend, they were asked to use the money to remove an unpleasant chore from their to-do list. At the end of the weekend, those who spent the money “buying time” reported greater well-being.

Klotz also points out that nature has “built-in checks on adding” at the “level of ecosystems.” Climate change is the planet’s response to our unchecked consumption of its resources. Unless we respond to this threat by prizing less, we are writing in our own destruction.

Value of subtracting

            Artists, according to Klotz, understand the value of subtracting. For Pablo Picasso, art was the “elimination of the unnecessary.” Likewise, Michelangelo “saw the angel in the marble” and chipped away until he could ‘set him free.”

Likewise, designers also see the value of subtracting. Most historical architectural structures are made of solid bricks. However, an innovative architect, Anna Keichline, filed a patent in 1927 for a K-brick, which retained the “load-bearing outside parts” as solid but hollowed out or subtracted the insides. Not only were these bricks easier to make and transport, they made buildings more energy-efficient and fire-resistant while reducing noise.

Klotz points out that subtracting is not synonymous with “doing less.” Sometimes, taking away involves more work, but the end state is preferable. Though an acquisitive culture is rife around the globe, indigenous cultures and most religious traditions have cautioned against greed. Klotz quotes Lao Tzu, the ancient Chinese philosopher, who sagely says, “To attain knowledge, add things every day. To attain wisdom, subtract things every day.”

(The writer is the author of Zero Limits: Things Every 20-Something Should Know. She blogs at www.arunasankaranarayanan.com.)