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The Untapped Potential of Less | Future

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To harness the untapped power of subtraction in the future, we need to understand why we haven’t embraced it in the past.

When I discuss my research, no one argues that, when trying to improve something, we don’t often subtract. Listeners nod knowingly when I mention how we pile on “to-dos” when we really need “to-stops,” or how we create incentives for good behavior … but don’t get rid of obstacles to it. It rings true when I mention that federal regulations are 17 times as long as they were in the 1950s; and that, in patent titles, “additive” synonyms are used about three times as often as “subtractive” ones. Adding, as the default, feels intuitive. One reason why, as my colleagues and I have shown in our new r

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