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Backstory
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You can call me Matt. I'm a blogger for the American Express OPEN Forum Ideas Hub, which I reprint here. I've written three books, with the fourth, The Laws of Subtraction, coming out in a few months. I run a small ideas agency called Edit Creativ (formerly Shibumi Creative Works...practicing subtraction...and no, it isn't a typo in the name).
I spent 8 years as an independent advisor to the U.S. corporate headquarters of Toyota. It changed my outlook on work and life. I learned how to learn and solve problems. I learned to "think lean". I learned the power of less. I took those lessons on the road to other organizations. Now I write, speak, coach others on creativity, innovation, and design strategy.
You can read more on my About page, or connect with me on my Contact page.
Why Subtraction?
Lao Tzu said: "To attain knowledge, add things every day. To attain wisdom, subtract things every day."
When you remove just the right thing in just the right way, something good happens.
That's my go-to philosophy, and this blog is dedicated to sharing it along with all the amazing things that amazing people are doing to improve the world by waging "war on more" through subtracting from our collective experience anything obviously excessive, wasteful, complicated, unnatural, hazardous, hard to use, or ugly. Or better yet, refraining from adding those things in the first place!
I've just finished a new book entitled The Laws of Subtraction, which are these 6 simple rules for winning in the age of excess everything:
#1: What isn’t there can often trump what is.
#2: The simplest rules create the most effective experience.
#3: Limiting information engages the imagination.
#4: Creativity thrives under intelligent constraints.
#5: "Break" is an important part of any breakthrough.
#6: Doing something isn’t always better than doing nothing.The book will be out October 26, 2012. I've asked some of the most brilliant people I know to contribute short insights on these laws. Almost everyone said yes...54 to be exact. You'll be amazed and inspired by their stories of how subtraction has played a role in their work and life.
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Monthly Archives: December 2011
6 Important Marketing Trends To Watch In 2012
Every year around this time, we shift our focus from “the year in review” to “the year ahead.” Trend reports abound, and with a bit of searching you can usually find one targeted to whatever your specific business niche might … Continue reading
Do Or Die
Clark Kokich, chairman of the digital ad agency Razorfish, has it right: “What we as marketers, and advertisers to marketers, need to do is, well…do. In other words, rather than invest all our time, energy and dollars in communicating with … Continue reading
Get On A Bike In 2012!
I’m on bike 5 days out of 7, for fun and exercise. I grew up on Kwajalein Atoll, in the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, and our only mode of transportation was the bike. But my island was a scant three miles … Continue reading
3 Great Design Tips For Startups
Design Staff is a new blog devoted to helping startups design great products, and based on the two short months they’ve been posting, it’s a site you’ll want to follow if you’re a small business owner or startup. Design Staff … Continue reading
3 Blogs To Follow
I don’t list a blogroll on my blogsite, for the simple reason that I follow so many that the list would dominate the right hand column of my page. My RSS reader (Google Reader) delivers a few hundred articles and … Continue reading
