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April 18, 2023
147. The Power of Subtraction: Leidy Klotz, author of ‘Subtract’, [reads] ‘Soccer in Sun and Shadow’
Leidy Klotz reading from Eduardo Galeano’s Soccer in Shadow and Sun, and discussing not only overcoming the intimidation of paring your creations, but recognizing when and where to trim the excess.
Leidy Klotz reading from Eduardo Galeano’s Soccer in Shadow and Sun, and discussing not only overcoming the intimidation of paring your creations, but recognizing when and where to trim the excess.
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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.
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]
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Resources:
Leidy Klotz | Website | Twitter | Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less | Sustainability Through Soccer
Eduardo Galeano | Soccer in Sun and Shadow
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