147. The Power of Subtraction: Leidy Klotz, author of ‘Subtract’, [reads] ‘Soccer in Sun and Shadow’

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Way, way back, when it was raining too hard to go out and kick a ball around, my brother, Nigel, and I had a game we occasionally played - pick-up sticks. If you don’t know this game, imagine about 30 different-coloured bamboo skewers in a pile. You had to remove them, one by one, without shifting the delicately-balanced structure. This is the first memory I have of a game where the goal was to remove things. This wasn’t Lego or Monopoly where you strive to build, this was surgery. Get‌ ‌book‌ ‌links‌ ‌and‌ ‌resources‌ ‌at‌ https://www.mbs.works/2-pages-podcast/ 

Leidy Klotz is a professor at The University of Virginia and the author of one of my favorite books on change, Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less. 

Leidy reads two pages from ‘Soccer in Sun and Shadow’ by Eduardo Galeano. [reading begins at 11:50]  

Hear us discuss: 

Finding balance between play and work. [15:32] | How to enjoy subtraction and enter the flow state: “Subtraction is additional work.” [16:57] | The connection between grief and the discipline of less. [20:16] | Knowing when to subtract: “When you expand your view of a situation, you might see that the thing you’re trying to do is being done somewhere else.” [22:22] | A story of identifying the essential. [26:43] | Prizes and punishments of change: “We don’t have to choose between adding and subtracting; they’re both complementary approaches to making changes.” [29:20]