Why our brains miss opportunities to improve through subtraction
Nature, University of Virginia researchers explain why people rarely think of removing something as a solution when looking at a situation, object or idea that needs improving. Instead, people almost always add some element, whether it helps or not. The team's findings suggest a fundamental reason for several problems: why people struggle with overwhelming schedules; why institutions become bogged down in red tape; and, of particular interest to researchers, why humanity is exhausting the planet's resources. "It happens in engineering design, which is my main interest," said co-author Leidy K...