Via Negativa translates to “by removal.” Taleb argues that a lot of problems can be solved by removing things, and not by adding more. In decision making, if you have to come up with more than one reason to do something, it’s probably because you’re just trying to convince yourself to do it. Decisions that are robust to errors don’t need more than one good reason. You can observe the beneficial effects of Via Negativa effects in a vast number of fields from Medicine and Diet to Wealth.
Copied from: https://anantja.in/antifragile-things-that-gain-from-disorder/
This mental model wasn’t in the main list of mental models I often look at https://fs.blog/mental-models/ but it’s one I’ve come across before and wanted to point out to people so thought I’d post it here on it’s own.
In this case, I’m thinking about using Via Negativa for removing stupid people from a group.
