Subtraction-First Problem Solving
Before you work harder, find where you can stay the same and still win.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 82%
Fladlien's first principle of business is a poker analogy: rather than mastering game theory and bluffing, find the table full of bad players betting big who don't care if they win or lose. Applied to business, you ask a sequence of questions that all try to preserve your current effort — where can I stay the same and win, then where's the minimum improvement, then the least effort improvement — and only after exhausting those do you consider working hard. The default move is subtraction, not addition. Because this inverts how everyone else approaches problems, it yields different insights.
Origin
Fladlien frames it as his self-taught first principle for playing the game of business, illustrated by his poker-table metaphor and applied to how he coaches clients differently from everyone else.
Core principles
- 01The best victories are won by knowing when and where to play, not by being a better player.
- 02First ask where you can stay the same and get a better result before asking where to improve.
- 03Seek the least amount of improvement with the least amount of effort that yields a better result.
- 04Default to subtraction — where can we do less, not more.
- 05Working hard is the last resort, not the first move.
How to run it
- 1
Look for the easy table first
Before improving your skills, ask whether a better positioned opportunity lets you win as you are — the poker equivalent of finding bad players betting big.
Pro tip The best victories in business are won by knowing when and where to play.
- 2
Exhaust 'stay the same' options
Identify every place you can get a better result without changing your effort or skill level before considering improvement.
- 3
Find the minimum viable improvement
If you must improve, ask what the least amount of improvement with the least amount of effort is that produces a better result.
- 4
Default to subtraction
Ask where you can do less rather than more; treat working really hard as the final option only after everything else is exhausted.
Watch out Everyone else asks 'what more do I need to take on' — copying them forfeits the different insights this inversion produces.
In the wild
To make more money in poker you could learn game theory, probabilities, and how to read people, or you could simply find tables full of bad players betting large amounts who don't care whether they win or lose.
→ Illustrates that changing where you play beats improving how you play — the core of Fladlien's first principle.
Common mistakes
Reaching for more effort by default
Asking 'what more do I need to work at, where am I deficient' first means you grind on improvements when a subtraction or a better-positioned opportunity would deliver more for less.
Is it for you?
Best for
Operators and marketers facing a plateau who habitually reach for more effort instead of better positioning.
Not ideal for
Situations where genuine skill mastery is the only lever and no better 'table' exists.
From the transcript
“my first principle of trying to play the game of business is where can I stay the same but get a better result and then…”
“I'm always like where do we subtract things where do we do less not more as a default principle”
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