In our world, the focus is on achieving more or obtaining more – more responsibility, more money, more promotions, and so on.
The ‘addition‘ of something is usually a measure of success, and in many situations in our life, this is the correct approach.
Equally useful as adding something to our lives is the subtraction of something from our lives, the removal of the things that are holding us back.
Via negativa means the “negative way” or “by way of denial.“
Via negativa is not something ‘to do,’ but something ‘not to do.’ In many aspects of life, success comes not from doing more, but by doing less.
Via Negativa is ‘adding more to life by subtracting’ – when less is more.
The purpose of this article is to increase awareness of areas where we can achieve more by doing less and achieve success through inaction (by literally being lazy).
Via Negativa in Money Matters
Nowhere is the via negativa approach more relevant than in personal finance.
Avoid stupid mistakes on money matters, and you can be better than the vast majority of the people. This is the formula adopted by the billionaires Warren Buffett and his business partner Charlie Munger.
It is remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent.
— Charlie Munger
Buffett’s mentor Benjamin Graham also believed in avoiding bad ideas.
You can get in way more trouble with a good idea than a bad idea, because you forget that the good idea has limits.
— Benjamin Graham
You may say this is fine for billionaires, but what does this mean to mere mortals like you and me in practical terms.
More in a soon to launch personal finance series of articles, but here are a few areas where via negativa approach helps.
Spend less than you earn
You can only ever be wealthy if you consistently spend significantly less than your earnings and profitably invest the savings.
Spending less leads to more wealth.
Be Marie Condo, de-clutter your house and stop further cluttering by buying things you don’t need. All that clutter used to be money, and hence time.
Discard what you don’t need. It will refresh your mind.
Part with old things before acquiring new ones.
– Shunmyo Masuno, Zen: The Art of Simple Living
Avoid debt
Debt is money you borrow from your future self to spend today.
Debt is the root cause of most personal finance issues – too much debt, too expensive debt, and debt used for wrong purposes.
Avoiding debt leads to more wealth.
More specifically:
- Avoid credit card debt. The rates of interest on it are horrendous and it is the cause of misery in a lot of young people.
- Avoid taking debt for consumption. Includes borrowing money for day to day living expenses, for buying that car, or for a vacation, just to name a few.
Ideally, avoid all types of debt. If unavoidable, use it only for creating wealth or buying assets that appreciate over time.
Don’t diversify indiscriminately
In investments, there is a lot of emphasis on diversification (not putting all eggs in one basket).
However, in practice, most returns are achieved by a handful of investments. Focused investment (putting eggs in one basket and watching it carefully) is equally essential.
Aim of diversification is the protection of your wealth.
Aim of focus is to grow your wealth.
You need a balance of both.
Transact less
Investment costs don’t get enough attention.
A lot of the investment returns earned go away in costs (fees, professional advisors, brokerage).
The more you trade or transact, the more the middlemen (banks, brokers, mutual funds) make money, and less is available to you as return on investment.
Too much wealth
Abundance isn’t always a blessing; it can be a bane too.
Having too much money may also be a problem in some cases like having –
- Too many assets requiring maintenance
- Complex businesses that require your sixteen hours every day, leaving you with no time and energy to enjoy life or spend with your family.
- Dealing with people you would prefer to avoid.
Simplify your life, remove activities you hate doing, and enjoy a richer life.
Via Negativa at Work
In the world of work and corporate cultures, action is respected, but not inaction.
In practical terms via Negativa is a useful approach in some aspects of work:
Focus using Pareto or 80/20 principle
Pareto principle states that 20% of customers provide 80% revenue or profits, 20% problems, cause 80% rework, and so on.
Focused attention to the 20% will produce disproportionate results, saving a lot of time and money.
Develop ‘specific knowledge’
Naval Ravikant, founder of Angel List, defines specific knowledge as ‘knowledge that you cannot be trained for; it is often highly technical or creative and cannot be outsourced or automated.‘
Specific knowledge is not about learning everything, it is learning something specific where there is no substitute for you.
Specific knowledge is also something you enjoy doing, it is work for others but play for you.
Find this ‘specific knowledge,’ and you will achieve Nirvana in your work, whether in employment or business.
Via Negativa in Health
(Warning: I am not a health expert. My comments below are personal opinions and do NOT represent medical advice. If you are suffering from any disease, you should consult your doctor before doing anything stated below).
The medical profession provides an invaluable service to humanity, and I have great respect for them.
It is a fact that we are still learning about our bodies and their functions, and many aspects vary across people. As our knowledge evolves, we find that science occasionally makes a ‘U-turn’ from prevalent practices, not only in health but also in other fields.
Practical areas where via negativa approach may help on health.
Fasting
Fasting is ‘not eating’ food to achieve health outcomes and has been an integral part of life for thousands of years.
Humans alternated between days of plentiful food and days of starvation. It is only recently that food has become abundant and deprived the body of the stressor of fasting. All principal religions recognized this importance of fasting to deal with situations of abundance and incorporated them in regular rituals.
However, food processing companies and the eat-outside restaurant culture encourage putting more food into our bodies. This has resulted in an obesity and lifestyle disease epidemic.
There is a lot of research that fasting can be as good as or even better than medical treatment in many medical conditions.
(Suggested Reading: The Complete Guide to Fasting by Dr. Jason Fung.)
A simple 16-8 fasting pattern with zero exercises and a diet of home-cooked food only has helped reduce my weight substantially in the past 6-7 weeks during the lockdown.
Medical interventions
Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his book Antifragile brilliantly highlights the via negativa approach for healthy people
We should not take risks with near-healthy people, but we should take a lot, a lot more risks with those deemed in danger.
The reason being that in complex systems like a human body, the benefits of intervention may be small and visible, but the costs can be substantial, delayed, and not apparent.
What does this mean in practical terms:
- For simple ailments like cold, cough and seasonal flu let nature take its course. Quite a few good doctors follow this approach. But there are a few ill-informed ones and also a lot of over-eager patients who demand interventions for minor things.
- Reduce risks from pharma intervention. There is research to prove that that lifestyle diseases should be treated by lifestyle changes in mild cases, instead of pharma products –
- Statins can potentially harm people who are not very sick.
- Insulin injections for Type II diabetics, based on the assumption that the harm from diabetes comes from blood sugar, not insulin resistance. Dr. Jason Fung articulates in his book that insulin prescription increases insulin resistance. It also results in weight gain, an opposite result of the problem intended to be solved.
The guideline is via negativa for healthy people, as Taleb says in his book:
If the patient is close to death, all speculative treatments should be encouraged—no holds barred.
Conversely, if the patient is near healthy, then Mother Nature should be the doctor.
Via Negativa and Knowledge
Knowledge grows by subtraction much more than by addition.
Negative knowledge (what is wrong, what does not work) is more instructive than positive knowledge (what is right, what works).
Air travel has become increasingly safe as accidents revealed ‘what not to do’ and allowed us to take precautions to prevent them in the future.
I articulated this aspect in my article on decision-making and judgement. The path to success is numerous iterations, learning from the inevitable mistakes about ‘what not to do’, fine-tuning the approach continuously till you succeed. It is in this context that Marcus Aurelius, the Roman Emperor, famously said his cryptic words ‘obstacle is the way.‘
The impediment to action advances action.
What stands in the way becomes the way.
As you learn ‘what not to do’, you will find your way getting clearly defined for you.
Why Follow the Via Negativa Approach?
It saves time, the most precious resource of all. And life is time.
It saves money because you are ‘not eating food’ or ‘not spending money’ and so on.
It conserves your energy and attention so that you can focus on more important things to achieve disproportionate results.
Qualities to be Successful at Via Negativa
Procrastination – Let time decide when you cannot. If you are biased towards action, or cannot decide quickly, then procrastinate. We generally procrastinate with mundane non-critical activities. We rarely procrastinate seeking medical help when we break a bone or two or where survival risks exist.
Patience – Wait for more information before deciding when there is incomplete information. There are two types of decisions – reversible and irreversible.
- Reversible decisions (or fail fast) should be made quickly as they generally have limited impact if gone wrong and you get opportunities to make them again.
- Irreversible decisions, you should take your time as the outcomes can have a significant impact on your life and you don’t get many opportunities to repeat.
Simplicity – Keep your needs limited, simplify your life so that you focus on aspects that matter to you instead of trying to boil the ocean.
Acquire ‘Lindy’ Knowledge – This deserves a separate article, but in brief, Lindy effect states that the longer something has survived (books, knowledge, practices), the longer they are likely to survive. You should acquire foundational ‘Lindy’ knowledge and not superficial knowledge.
Exceptions to Via Negativa
The article identifies aspects that will benefit from this heuristic, but it is not a formula; via negativa is not a substitute for your common sense and judgement.
Via Negativa is a useful heuristic (rules of thumb), but taking it to extremes will harm you.
Fasting does not mean that you stop eating entirely.
Focused investments do not mean you buy one speculative stock with bad fundamentals. Strike a balance between diversification (avoid losing all your wealth) and focus (growing wealth).
Reduce clutter doesn’t mean you reduce them to zero and go homeless.
Focus doesn’t mean you don’t pay attention to important things like family, health, etc. To be happy, we need to balance many aspects that drive happiness.
Procrastination in applying for jobs, if you are unemployed and need to earn a living, will just result in you going to bed hungry.
Hope the article gave some ideas of how via negativa could be useful in life.
I am sure you have realized areas where you were already practicing the ‘less is more’ approach, and also areas where you can adopt it going forward.
Let’s end with this thought from one of the most successful leaders of recent times.
People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on.
But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are.
You have to pick carefully. I’m actually as proud of the things we haven’t done as the things I have done.
Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things.
– Steve Jobs
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Awesome read as always and most of things always believed in but good to read again and that helps to take informed decision!
Amazing work you are doing for people like me – thanks a Ton 🙏🙏🙏
Thank you, I really enjoyed this. It’s a new concept to me, but I think it is very close to things I write about. I will definitely be researching this more!
Lovely article. Your description of specific knowledge was interesting. I like the idea of finding work that feels like play.
Terri