Shimon ben Zoma died too young to be ordained as a rabbi. Yet, he is known for living as a minimalist. In a work completed in the early third century CE, Pirkei Avot (Chapters of the Fathers, 4:1), ben Zoma is remembered for this:
"Who is wise? Whoever learns from everyone.
"Who is strong? Whoever masters their impulses.
"Who is rich? Whoever is content with what they have.
“I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.”
— Michelangelo
⸻
The Power of Less: Freedom Through Subtraction.
-Modern culture quietly teaches a powerful assumption: more is better.
More information. More resources. More complexity. More accumulation.
-Yet some of humanity’s deepest insights point in precisely the opposite direction — that excellence, efficiency, and even freedom arise not from addition, but from removal.
-Michelangelo did not believe he created sculptures by adding form to stone.
The form already existed. His task was subtraction — removing what was unnecessary until essence appeared.
-This principle echoes across art, manufacturing, biology, and even human consciousness.
⸻
Toyota and the Discipline of Scarcity.
-One of the clearest industrial expressions of this idea emerged in the philosophy behind the Toyota Motor Corporation production system.
-Rather than stockpiling parts and materials, Toyota developed what became known as Just-in-Time production — producing only what is needed, when it is needed, and in the exact amount required.
-Toyota’s philosophy was not merely logistical; it was psychological.
-Within the Toyota Production System, excess inventory is considered muda, meaning waste. Surplus inventory hides problems rather than solving them. Defects remain undiscovered, inefficiencies go unnoticed, and workers gradually lose sensitivity to resource use. When materials are abundant, behavior changes: people become less careful because consequences are delayed or invisible.
-Toyota’s insight was that scarcity sharpens awareness. When parts arrive exactly when needed, every participant must remain attentive, adaptive, and responsible. Efficiency emerges naturally because problems can no longer hide behind excess supply.
-Too much inventory creates comfort but reduces learning.
Constraint creates clarity.
-The organization improves not by accumulating more resources, but by removing what prevents awareness — much like a sculptor removing marble.
⸻
The Genome Paradox: Why Humans Have Fewer Genes.
Chaos may be
“free will…..”
(if humans are just “stimulus response”
-the stimulus Signal might degrade by the time it becomes a response
and thus that entropy is the free will)
-This paradox appears in biology.
-The human genome contains roughly twenty thousand protein-coding genes, while the genome of The Rice Plant
(Oryza sativa) contains tens of thousands MORE gene variants and duplicated genetic sequences, historically estimated near or above sixty thousand
gene-related elements depending on classification.
-At first glance this seems backwards. Humans display far greater behavioral complexity than rice plants. One might assume greater complexity requires more genetic instructions.
-Yet biological sophistication does not arise from having more instructions.
-It arises from flexibility in how instructions are used.
-More potential for chaos.
-Less order is
free will.
A rice plant operates largely through genetic certainty.
Its responses are highly predetermined. Environmental conditions such as temperature, moisture, or daylight activate ancestral programs encoded within DNA.
Growth patterns follow inherited biological memory accumulated across evolutionary time.
-In this sense, the rice genome functions almost like extensive read-only memory.
(R.O.M)
It is extraordinarily optimized for survival but tightly constrained. The plant cannot decide otherwise. It must respond according to its encoded history.
-Humans, by contrast, possess fewer fixed instructions but vastly greater regulatory freedom. Genes are reused across multiple contexts. Expression changes dynamically. Neural plasticity allows learning that exceeds genetic programming.
-Because fewer rigid directives govern behavior, humans gain something remarkable:Choice.
-If it rains, a human may wear a coat — or deliberately choose not to, simply for the experience of feeling the rain. The action need not serve survival. It can serve curiosity, play, meaning, or exploration.
Less biological prescription creates more experiential freedom.
⸻
Subtraction as Liberation-
-Across art, industry, and biology, the same pattern appears.
-Michelangelo freed form by removing stone.
-Toyota freed efficiency by removing surplus.
-Human evolution appears to have freed behavior by reducing rigid genetic scripting.
Accumulation builds structure, but excess structure becomes limitation.
Removal reveals possibility.
The paradox is subtle yet profound:
Freedom does not come from storing MORE options in advance.
Freedom arises when fewer constraints determine what must happen next.
⸻
The Philosophy of Enough-
-This insight challenges a deeply rooted cultural instinct — the belief that progress requires constant expansion.
-Sometimes progress is refinement.
Sometimes intelligence is restraint.
Sometimes wisdom lies in removing what feels secure but silently restricts growth.
Profound! And, as usual, VERY true and thought provoking. I want MORE! 😉
Thank you Chris
Shimon ben Zoma died too young to be ordained as a rabbi. Yet, he is known for living as a minimalist. In a work completed in the early third century CE, Pirkei Avot (Chapters of the Fathers, 4:1), ben Zoma is remembered for this:
"Who is wise? Whoever learns from everyone.
"Who is strong? Whoever masters their impulses.
"Who is rich? Whoever is content with what they have.
"Who is honored? Whoever honors others.
thank you Rabbi one of my favorites
“I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.”
— Michelangelo
⸻
The Power of Less: Freedom Through Subtraction.
-Modern culture quietly teaches a powerful assumption: more is better.
More information. More resources. More complexity. More accumulation.
-Yet some of humanity’s deepest insights point in precisely the opposite direction — that excellence, efficiency, and even freedom arise not from addition, but from removal.
-Michelangelo did not believe he created sculptures by adding form to stone.
The form already existed. His task was subtraction — removing what was unnecessary until essence appeared.
-This principle echoes across art, manufacturing, biology, and even human consciousness.
⸻
Toyota and the Discipline of Scarcity.
-One of the clearest industrial expressions of this idea emerged in the philosophy behind the Toyota Motor Corporation production system.
-Rather than stockpiling parts and materials, Toyota developed what became known as Just-in-Time production — producing only what is needed, when it is needed, and in the exact amount required.
-Toyota’s philosophy was not merely logistical; it was psychological.
-Within the Toyota Production System, excess inventory is considered muda, meaning waste. Surplus inventory hides problems rather than solving them. Defects remain undiscovered, inefficiencies go unnoticed, and workers gradually lose sensitivity to resource use. When materials are abundant, behavior changes: people become less careful because consequences are delayed or invisible.
-Toyota’s insight was that scarcity sharpens awareness. When parts arrive exactly when needed, every participant must remain attentive, adaptive, and responsible. Efficiency emerges naturally because problems can no longer hide behind excess supply.
-Too much inventory creates comfort but reduces learning.
Constraint creates clarity.
-The organization improves not by accumulating more resources, but by removing what prevents awareness — much like a sculptor removing marble.
⸻
The Genome Paradox: Why Humans Have Fewer Genes.
Chaos may be
“free will…..”
(if humans are just “stimulus response”
-the stimulus Signal might degrade by the time it becomes a response
and thus that entropy is the free will)
-This paradox appears in biology.
-The human genome contains roughly twenty thousand protein-coding genes, while the genome of The Rice Plant
(Oryza sativa) contains tens of thousands MORE gene variants and duplicated genetic sequences, historically estimated near or above sixty thousand
gene-related elements depending on classification.
-At first glance this seems backwards. Humans display far greater behavioral complexity than rice plants. One might assume greater complexity requires more genetic instructions.
-Yet biological sophistication does not arise from having more instructions.
-It arises from flexibility in how instructions are used.
-More potential for chaos.
-Less order is
free will.
A rice plant operates largely through genetic certainty.
Its responses are highly predetermined. Environmental conditions such as temperature, moisture, or daylight activate ancestral programs encoded within DNA.
Growth patterns follow inherited biological memory accumulated across evolutionary time.
-In this sense, the rice genome functions almost like extensive read-only memory.
(R.O.M)
It is extraordinarily optimized for survival but tightly constrained. The plant cannot decide otherwise. It must respond according to its encoded history.
-Humans, by contrast, possess fewer fixed instructions but vastly greater regulatory freedom. Genes are reused across multiple contexts. Expression changes dynamically. Neural plasticity allows learning that exceeds genetic programming.
-Because fewer rigid directives govern behavior, humans gain something remarkable:Choice.
-If it rains, a human may wear a coat — or deliberately choose not to, simply for the experience of feeling the rain. The action need not serve survival. It can serve curiosity, play, meaning, or exploration.
Less biological prescription creates more experiential freedom.
⸻
Subtraction as Liberation-
-Across art, industry, and biology, the same pattern appears.
-Michelangelo freed form by removing stone.
-Toyota freed efficiency by removing surplus.
-Human evolution appears to have freed behavior by reducing rigid genetic scripting.
Accumulation builds structure, but excess structure becomes limitation.
Removal reveals possibility.
The paradox is subtle yet profound:
Freedom does not come from storing MORE options in advance.
Freedom arises when fewer constraints determine what must happen next.
⸻
The Philosophy of Enough-
-This insight challenges a deeply rooted cultural instinct — the belief that progress requires constant expansion.
-Sometimes progress is refinement.
Sometimes intelligence is restraint.
Sometimes wisdom lies in removing what feels secure but silently restricts growth.
The sculptor removes marble.
The engineer removes inventory.
Evolution removes unnecessary biological rigidity.
And the human being, perhaps, removes unnecessary habits, assumptions, and fears until something already present becomes visible.
-Not created.
But revealed.
Excellent essay Scott about
“Dissolving”, if I just tried to dissolve,
it becomes a thing unto itself and I try and do more of instead
just noticing what I really need to do
for “efficiency”.
Love the perfect pictures of the Bees, just doing their thing and doing it beautifully.