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Q45“Doing something isn’t always better than doing nothing” and “The simplest rules create the most effective experience” are two of the six  Laws of Subtraction advocated by Matthew May to  accomplish more by doing less better. Unknown

How cleverly involving of Matthew May to design the book that creates a “click moment” of recognition and response in others, according to Frans Johansson in The Click Moment.

clickwn-1Thus he creates an enticing mental  “hook” on which others can hang their related ideas. May offering just six interwoven pieces of advice to simplify our lives by letting lesser things go so we can do some things better.   Such actionable specificity creates credibility and memorability.  Consequently Matthew May sticks his ideas in our minds in ways that:

• Enable us to gain clarity about our behavior and thus more likely to change

•  Spur us to share what we learned and our own experience in experimenting with his ideas — thus hanging our own response on the “hook” of his concrete ideas.

That’s a valuable visibility boosting method to leverage Peter Guber’s advice, in Tell to Win: create a purposeful narrative in which people are pulled into your story because they can see a role they want to play in it.tellown-1 In their re-telling of your story, they reshape it, making it their own and thus more relevant to more kinds of people the more it is shared. That pass-along effect enables you to involve and engage more people so you can serendipitously attract more people around sweet spots of shared interest.

Matthew May uses another “hook” that you can emulate to boost the visibility of your idea, cause or project. For some of his laws, he builds upon other well-known experts’ ideas, thus boosting their visibility and instilling bragging rights in them as they are spurred to share the positive way you cited their insights.

What’s Your Favorite, Related Law For Living a Simpler, More Accomplished Life With Others?

Grabbing onto his hook I’ve added a Kare’s Corollary Law to each of May’s six Laws of Subtraction. Perhaps they’ll  inspire you to also add your relevant law to each of these and share them with others:

 Makingn-1Law #1: What Isn’t There Can Often Trump What Is


“When you reduce the number of doors that someone can walk through, more people walk through the one that you want them to walk through.” ~ Scott Belsky, founder and CEO of Behance and author of Making Ideas Happen

Kare’s Corollary Law

Entice yet don’t overwhelm would-be customers by offering them just three versions of your service or product, making all three visible at once. Show a low-cost yet enticing basic option; and one full of all the bells and whistles, or a premium parts the package with more parts; and a middle option that is literally displayed in the middle. paradox-1Subtracting other distracting options in this way spurs more people to buy something, and the average buy will be bigger. That’s my takeaway from Barry Schwartz’ The Paradox of Choice where he, like Matthew May, suggests that too many options often don’t make us smarter or happier with what we choose, if we do choose anything.

 Law #2: The Simplest Rules Create the Most Effective Experience


Keeping it simple isn’t easy. By exploiting subtraction in innovation, we’ve been able to create an environment of freedom and creativity that allows us to thrive.” ~ Brad Smith,   CEO, Intuit

newwn-1Kare’s Corollary Law

Setting just a few rules makes it seems like you really thought about them and intend to make them stick, further, they are more likely to be remembered and followed. Plus this approach is more likely to create, what John Seely Brown and Douglas Thomas, in A New Culture of Learning, call a “bounded and unbounded” environment in which people are more likely to learn and invent tacitly, fueled by their passionate interests.

In such a culture people feel more free to self-organize into teams as the need or opportunity arises, and add their own relevant Rules of Engagement if they feel they need them. With fewer rules and more freedom, we are more likely to tinker, suggests John Seely Brown. In this increasingly complex yet connected world, it behooves organizations to go “social,” spurring self-organizing inventiveness around that organization’s core mission.

AppleLaw #3: Limiting Information Engages the Imagination

“Subtraction can mean the difference between a highly persuasive presentation and a long, convoluted, and confusing one. Why say more when you can say less?” ~ Carmine Gallo,  author of The Apple Experience

Kare’s Corollary Law

Get specific sooner. Upfront provide the specific detail that proves your general conclusion, not the reverse, which is our natural tendency. Yet too many details can act as underbrush, obscuring your core point. Make your message almost as vital as AIR: Actionable. Interestingness. Relevant.

Law #4: Creativity Thrives Under Intelligent ConstraintsProgress

“Here’s the key to the conundrum for managers who want to stoke the innovation fire: That close cousin of scarcity, constraint, can indeed foster creativity.” ~ Teresa Amabile, author of The Progress Principle

Kare’s Corollary Law

To spark people’s interest in innovating under constrained circumstances, build into the process small, short-term experiments –what Peter Sims dubbed Little Bets — so participants experience both group agreement that early failures are ok and that some successes happen sooner too, to fuel persistence around the task.

Bets-1That notion is congruent with the subtitle of Teresa Amabile’s co-authored book: “using small wins to ignite joy, engagement and creativity at work.”

Law #5: Break Is the Important Part of Breakthrough

“If you kill the butterflies in your stomach, you’ll kill the dream. Embrace the feeling. Save the butterflies.” ~  Jonathan Fields, author of Uncertaintyuncertaintyes1-150x150

Kare’s Corollary Law

The upside to feeling those butterflies is to recognize that you are Daring Greatly in the wake of being vulnerable, according to Brene Brown. Daringn-1Then you can work and live more fully engaged with others. Subtract blame, shame and cover ups. Set apt boundaries with others, and pull in people with whom you can be open. That simplifies life.

Law #6: Doing Something Isn’t Always Better Than Doing Nothing

“When we’re faced with the greatest odds against us, often we need to edit rather than add.” ~ Chip Conley,  cofounder of Joie de Vivre Hospitality and author of Emotional Equationsemotionl-equationsal-128x150

Kare’s Corollary Law

To make smart choices on exactly what to “edit, rather than add” pair up a person who is highly experienced on that topic with a novice, according to performance expert and author of Choke, Sian Beilock. Choke-s-150x150Through working together, one winds up teaching the other and thus gaining clarity on the subject. The other person, writes Beilock, “helps think about the problem differently or “’out of the box’ which facilitates the type of creativity that is often needed to solve atypical problems in new, intuitive ways.”

Pairing up those with flexible mindsets yet disparate temperaments may also lead to smarter choices on what to edit out. Match up a rosy lens optimist with a more realistic pessimist, using Marty Seligman’s Learned Optimism to confirm who is on the ends of that spectrum. Also, pair an introvert with an extrovert, using Susan Cain’s book, Quiet, as a guide to finding both and understanding the benefits each can bring to the task. Q-1

moving from me to we

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