“It isn't the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it's the pebble in your shoe.”
– Muhammad Ali, Boxer
In his excellent book, “Antifragile”, Nicholas Nassim Taleb explains that we tend to be suckers for positive advice, the “additive” approaches offered by how-to books, top ten tips, government interventions, crash diets, medication prescriptions, get-rich-quick schemes etc. Sadly, in practice these “additive” approaches often don’t deliver the hoped-for results, and can even cause actual harm. For instance, in the USA, it’s estimated that iatrogenic illness (illness caused accidentally by medical interventions) is the 3rd biggest killer after heart disease and cancer. So if addition isn’t as strong a bet as we’d like it to be, what’s the alternative? In this article, we’re going to explore the unexpected power of subtraction.
