The Courage to Subtract: Reducing 100 Pieces of Information Down to 20

Too Much Text

I was looking back at a document I had made earlier and suddenly thought:

“There is too much text…”

In the past, I used to write everything down.

As an engineer, I believed that “leaving nothing out” was the right thing to do.

Exception handling. Prerequisites. Additional notes. Edge cases. Background history.

“If I leave this out, someone might misunderstand.” “If someone questions it later, I will be in trouble.”

Thinking that way, I kept adding more and more information.

The result was a document I had worked very hard on, but nobody wanted to read.

To be honest, I used to think:

“If they read it properly, they would understand.”

But recently, I finally understood something.

People cannot take in that much information at once.

Even if I throw 100 pieces of information at someone, only about 20 or 30 will actually reach them.

In the worst case, there is so much information that the result becomes zero.

That is not because the other person is at fault.

I think it is simply how the human brain works.

Information Has to Be a Size People Can Receive

When you think about it, this is obvious.

Even with presents, if someone suddenly handed you ten huge packages, you would not know what to do.

Information is the same.

Unless it is shaped into a size the other person can receive, they cannot process it.

Recently, I have started to think that creating documents is closer to sculpture than writing.

At first, you make everything.

You lay out all 100 pieces of information. You organize everything without gaps.

But the real work starts after that.

From there, you search for the real core:

“What is truly necessary here?”

Then you cut.

You cut.

And you keep cutting.

Cutting Is Not Being Lazy

In the past, I had this feeling that reducing information meant cutting corners.

But now I see it the opposite way.

It is consideration for the other person’s time.

Of course, it is difficult.

When you remove something, you start to worry:

“Is it really okay to leave this out?”

This is especially true for engineers.

Because our job requires us to protect accuracy, we naturally want to explain everything.

But recently, I have been thinking this:

If I am worried, I can keep the detailed version as a separate document.

What I should give people first is the main version, the one they can understand with the minimum necessary information.

The detailed specifications and extra notes only need to be available when they become necessary.

In movies, the main story and the reference materials are separate.

If you try to make people read the entire reference book from the start, nobody can follow.

But if explaining everything results in nobody being able to act, then the explanation has lost its purpose.

Documents Are for Action

Recently, when I make PowerPoint slides, I ask myself:

“Can I cut another 70%?”

I am not making documents to show how much I know.

I am making documents so the other person can take action.

That is probably what it means to communicate.

And after writing all of this, I realized something.

This article could probably be cut by about 70% too.