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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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Author Archives: mm
Artistry At Work: Working Through Trust
“A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and along those fibers as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects.” Herman Melville Trust is the great multiplier in life; it is … Continue reading
What The Plus!
It’s been 25 years since Guy Kawasaki wrote a book about a product–that being The Macintosh Way in 1987. But after using Google’s social media service Google+ for a few months, he felt the need to write another product-oriented book, … Continue reading
Simple Rules for Domestic Harmony When One Spouse is an Entrepreneur
Last week, I reviewed Inc. magazine’s Balancing Acts columnist and contributing editor Meg Cadoux Hirshberg, whose new book For Better For Work provides a practical and insightful guide to the very tricky art of balancing entrepreneurship and family. Meg has generously … Continue reading
Subtracting Tension, Adding Power & Control
When it comes to recreation, I have two addictions: cycling and tennis. If I’m not on a climbing a mountain in the dirt or on the road, I’m chasing fuzzy yellow bouncing balls around a hard court. I’m also a … Continue reading
