Are you additive or subtractive

When there’s a problem to be solved, do you find yourself adding things to get to a solution ... or removing them? 

It turns out we are all more ‘additive’ than ‘subtractive’. 

And it’s impacting the quantities and kinds of ideas and solutions we can come up with. 

Researchers still don’t know why we’d rather keep adding things, features, stuff, to try and solve a problem ... rather than stripping them out, but knowing we do it is a good step to being able to compensate for this bias. 

‘The first question we ask ourselves is ‘what can I add?’ And ‘what can I subtract?’ is not [part of our first reaction]. Subtracting something isn’t a harder thing to think of “but you have to think harder to get to it”.

We’re missing the potential of a raft of ideas when we solve problems simply by throwing ‘more’ up as a solution. 


Read about it in this article by Katie MacBride in Inverse.  

It’s curious to wonder about how we think. If we can consciously subtract, remove, reduce or take things away to problem solve... we’ll be better thinkers and more productive problem solvers.

Why write

Because I want to get ideas out of my head. 

Because I enjoy the process of thinking and creating. 

Because words are an accessible way to support people. 

Because I want to ensure there is a greater record of women’s thinking in history. 


Aha! This one snags at me. Too many quotes in history are from men: Albert Einstein, Henry Ford and his faster horses, Steve Jobs.. 

We cycle through the same books by the same authors and end up thinking the same. 


How many female authors are on your bookshelf or in your kindle? 

How many books by women authors are you reading? 

How many women authors are cited in that article ‘10 best books to read on...’? 

When did you last recommend or review a book by a woman? 


The history that is looked back on in the future won’t change unless we change it... now, in our time. 

I reckon I’m here to help create a record of thinking. First my own, then others, and to guide others through working out what they think, and expressing those ideas. 

Expression of ideas via speech, presentation, interview, blog, podcast, conversation, artwork, article, post, book - whatever appeals. 

There’s more to come on the project of Future Thinking Women. 

What is of your making

Eating up content is relatively easy. You can read it, listen to it, scan over it, click on it and get endlessly lost in it. 

But do you make? 

Do you work out what you think and put it out there for others to consider? 

For example, such a small percentage of LinkedIn users make and share their thinking. 

So how about it? Let’s make something!

Pick a topic you're interested in. What are three things you think people need to know or they get wrong or would do well to try? 

Write about it. 

And if you’re not a regular writer, maybe you’re more of a talker. Hit ‘record’ on the voice memo on your phone and talk for a few minutes. Your thoughts and opinions will become clearer. 

The world needs more future thinkers; not the same voices, reading the same authors and sharing the same quotes. 

That’s an ever-decreasing spiral. 

Your diverse and different point of view is needed. We need to hear it - whether it’s a story of your experience, an opinion about some insights you’ve had or a projection of how you think the future could be. 

What are you seeing? What are you noticing? What do you think? 

I’d love to consume more of your making. 

Lines of thoughts

What is the stuff you like thinking about? How does it connect to other topics you like thinking about? 

Is there a line or thread that runs through it all?  

Some people are straight line thinkers. The connections between their ideas, thoughts and themes are straight lines. 

Others are zig-zag thinkers. Their ideas and imaginings are here ... and there. 

Still others ‘go with the flow’, open to wherever their thinking takes them. A little more organic perhaps 🌱 

This is what makes us unique. 

It doesn’t really matter what you like to think about. 

But if you can find the theme or thread and see the ‘bigger picture’ that connects them all, you go a long way to learning more about yourself and how you make sense of the things that happen in your world. 


I love posing the ‘desert island’ question : if you and I were stuck on a desert island and could only talk about two or three topics, what would they be? 🏝 

Thinking about what you think about ... that’s a powerful thought among many. 

Make some lines and connections between your thoughts. 

What’s the box you’re thinking outside of

‘Be innovative ... but not too innovative,’ said the team leader. 

They wanted creative and innovative thinking, but not too much, not too ‘out there’. 

The need to generate clever and creative ideas is often called ‘thinking outside the box’. 

So... what’s the box? 

And how do you know you’re thinking beyond it or outside it? 

With the team, we identified their current ways and types of thinking, their usual ‘inside the box’ thinking

This helped identify what would be out there... or waaaay out there. 


Being more creative and innovative gets easier the more you do it. But the early days of a team thinking beyond their usual ways can mean taking a big step indeed. 

Courage, risk taking, speaking out, throwing in crazy ideas... and collect a heap of them. 

These are all good practices for extending your thinking beyond your usual boundaries. 

Take a step or two - once you identify what your ‘usual’ thinking is. 

Then you’ll be able to step out, out out of the box of your routine and habitual ways of thinking.