Editing is the quiet practice of subtraction. In writing, it removes what weakens the message. In life, it removes what dilutes the mission. The art is “invisible” because the audience sees only the final clarity, not the cuts that created it.
This chapter encourages ruthless simplicity: fewer meetings, fewer projects, fewer goals, fewer half-promises. It also warns that editing is not a one-time event. Nonessentials return unless you keep cutting.
Good editing is not negative. It is protective. It preserves the essential by removing the distracting, the redundant, and the merely acceptable.
The essentialist becomes someone who is willing to prune. Not because they hate options, but because they respect coherence. A life with too many parts stops being a life and becomes a pile of obligations.