Via Negativa
This term was originally used in Christian theology to describe what God isn’t in order to understand what God is. But it soon evolved to beyond theology and became nothing about religion. I was introduced to this term when Nassim Taleb used it in his book which opened me up to this ‘removing the bad’ mental model. Once this worldview was activated, I started to realise many others from Warren Buffett to Bruce Lee have been emphasising it all along.
(Excerpt from Rework by Jason Fried) The way to find the epicenter is to ask yourself this question: “If I took this away, would what I’m selling still exist?” A hot dog stand isn’t a hot dog stand without the...
September 19, 2021|
Circle of Competence, Strategy, Via Negativa
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(Excerpt from Writing Well by William Zinsser) Writing improves in direct ratio to the number of things we can keep out of it that shouldn’t be there. “Up” in “free up” shouldn’t be there. Examine every word...
February 7, 2021|
Via Negativa
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(Excerpt from Invested by Charles Schwab) The world of business, like the rest of life, is full of wonderful temptations, and making a choice about where you are going to devote your energy is often as much about...
October 24, 2020|
Business, Focus, Life, Via Negativa
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(Excerpt from The Great Mental Models Volume 1: General Thinking Concepts by Shane Parrish) Peter Bevelin, put it best: “I don’t want to be a great problem solver. I want to avoid problems—prevent them...
August 9, 2020|
Via Negativa
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(Excerpt from The Road Less Stupid by Keith Cunningham) How much money would you have right now if I gave you the ability to unwind any three financial decisions you have ever made? Write that number down . . ....
May 10, 2020|
Inversion, Via Negativa
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(Excerpt from Extraordinary Tennis Ordinary Players by Simon Ramo) In expert tennis, about 80 per cent of the points are won; in amateur tennis, about 80 per cent of the points are lost. In other words, professional...
April 11, 2020|
Inversion, Via Negativa
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(Excerpt from University of Berkshire Hathaway by Daniel Pecaut and Corey Wrenn) He Charlie Munger claimed that his best ideas haven’t done better than others’ best ideas, but he’s lost less on his worst...
April 11, 2020|
Fallibility, Inversion, Investing, Via Negativa
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(Excerpt from The Star Principle by Richard Koch) Subtracting benefits is important because it usually enables the new category to lower costs, and/or to substitute the new benefits without charging more, because of...
February 20, 2020|
Strategy, Via Negativa
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To attain knowledge, add things every day. To attain wisdom, remove things every day. Lao Tzu...
February 19, 2020|
Via Negativa
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(Excerpt from The Star Principle by Richard Koch) you can forget about more than 95 per cent of the ideas you may have. For every 20 ideas you have, you can junk 19 of them, confidently and securely, without doing any...
February 18, 2020|
Focus, Strategy, Via Negativa
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