Each week our team reviews Founder Finds before it goes out.
We look at each section. Each link. Each blurb.
The question is not “Is it good?”
The question is “Is it necessary?”
You can write something that is true, nuanced and beautiful.
It can still make the piece worse.
Something can add signal on its own but dilute the whole. If the thing you are adding has a lower signal-to-noise ratio than what you are adding it to, it must go.
“Is it necessary?” is not a question. It is a knife.
It cuts away the good and leaves the essential.
I use it in writing. And I use it everywhere else:
- In relationships: I used to give unsolicited advice to friends. Now I ask: Is this necessary? If someone does not ask for feedback, especially if I think they will not act on it, the answer is almost always no. I save my time. I save theirs too.
- In product development: Each feature. Is this necessary? Because complexity compounds.
- In writing: I removed two lines from this post. They were true. They added nuance. But if I remove them, does the reader still get the point? Yes. So the lines were cut.
Not all complexity is bad.
Justified complexity serves the goal. It may even be necessary to reach the goal.
Unjustified complexity just feels like progress.
Perfection is achieved when there is nothing left to take away.
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What can you cut today?
