[notes]

Design by removal

When people solve problems, they typically think: ‘What can I add to make it better?’ We tend not to ask ourselves: what can we take away from it, what can we subtract, what can we remove that might still make something better.

Gabrielle Adams, University of Virginia

I have so many thoughts about this, I can’t even begin to express myself right now. Just wanted to log the finding of this gem (hat tip Lori Sallee). Spent 38 bucks to purchase the original article on Nature, but this summary on Scientific American and the six-minute video below (which I extracted the quote from above) are available for free and more than worth your time.

Let’s just be reminded: removing pieces, more often than not, is free.