Lao Tzu on getting better by taking things away. From Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu, about the 4th century BC.
In October 1993, archaeologists dug out a tomb near Guodian, a village in central China. It had been sealed around 300 BC.
Inside lay some 800 bamboo slips. Some held the oldest known copy of parts of the Tao Te Ching, the book credited to Lao Tzu. One line among them still sounds odd today: learning adds, and the Way takes away.
The Tao Te Ching, credited to Lao Tzu, says in chapter 48 that learning adds a little every day, while the Way takes a little away. Its oldest known copy, buried around 300 BC, already held the line. In a 2021 study, many people paid to add pieces to a shaky toy tower, when taking one block out was free and worked better.
The fix you overlook is usually the one that takes something out. Practical advice: before you add a new habit or tool, name one thing to drop.
Likely, on the evidence · checked against 7 sourcesBefore adding anything new this week, drop one thing first.
“My weeks are packed and I keep adding systems to cope. What should I take away first?”
Tell my boss I’m overloaded, with a mentor playing the other person. →
Subtract Something Daily and the other 11 ideas of Tao Te Ching, a minute at a time.
Download on theApp StoreEvery idea is drawn from the public-domain text, and its names, dates and quotes are checked against the sources listed with it. The paintings are made for Counsel; they show the scene, not a historical record.
