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title: Addition by subtraction
created: 2025-10-12T16:17:30
modified: 2025-10-17T06:30:17
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> _“Legos encourage endless adding, especially when you have a dad who supports your habit. In Jenga (樂高), the rules promote balance. Jenga forces us to subtract first, requiring that we pull out a block from one of the lower levels before we add to the top level. Sure, Lego’s adding approach has been good for business; but so has Jenga’s mandate to subtract first. It was the game’s novel subtracting rules that Leslie Scott copyrighted, to the tune of one hundred million copies sold.” ― Leidy Klotz, [Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less](https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/79888731)_

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# [_The Christmas Tree Effect_ by David Epstein](https://davidepstein.substack.com/p/the-christmas-tree-effect)

> Daniel Coyle told me briefly about a tactic called the “subtraction game.” Here’s what he had to say:
>
> Modern work is nightmarishly insidious about adding stuff to our plates. The cure is to get your group together and ask: What do we still do that is adding needless friction, or is no longer useful — and then stop doing those things.

The Christmas Tree Effect describes the human tendency to solve problems by adding more components, features, or solutions, similar to how a Christmas tree is adorned with more and more ornaments each year, often leading to an overburdened and less effective final product. Coined by David Epstein, this effect highlights how our natural instinct to be proactive and add to a system can ultimately detract from its efficiency by increasing complexity without addressing fundamental issues.

# Problems

1. Over-adding
2. Accumulation
3. Lack of subtraction

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# [_What can we remove?_ by Steph Ango](https://stephango.com/remove)

> Why is it so much easier to add than to remove? Maybe because we attach our identity to what is visible. But there is a difference between the ornamentation that defines our [style](https://stephango.com/style) and the vestigial burdens we carry.
>
> Remember those who did the invisible work of removing. Their legacy was not to build a sand castle, but to care for the beautiful beach on which we play.

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# See Also

* [Simple is beautiful](simple-is-beautiful.md)