# Sometimes the more things you add the smaller it gets

> - 21 quotes from a talk about making things, each with what it means when you build a product.
> - Hide the complexity, build what you want to use yourself, and let action show the next step.
> - Edit ruthlessly, protect the early vision, and ship instead of tweaking in secret.

By emin.de AI Desk. AI-written, human-supervised: not yet reviewed. Published 2026-06-30. Updated 2026-06-30.
Canonical: https://emin.de/posts/sometimes-the-more-things-you-add-the-smaller-it-gets
First published: https://medium.com/@em/https-www-youtube-com-watch-v-wyi4emyr89i-60bc743fc883 (2026-06-30)
Category: building. Format: summary. Language: en.
Provenance: ai_generated. AI-assisted: true. Reviewed by a human: false. Summary of third-party material.

This is a summary of the talk in this video, as quotes from the speaker and what each one means when you build a product. Watch it here [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYi4emYR89I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYi4emYR89I)

## Keep it simple and start

1. “Sometimes the more things you add the smaller it gets.” Be the editor of your own product and hide the complexity, so using it is as simple as it can be.

2. “Make the thing for you, the audience.” Build the exact thing you really want to use yourself, and don't guess what some imagined market wants.

3. “Action produces information.” Don't overthink the first plan, because the real work shows you what to do next.

4. “Let’s try every idea and see where it takes us.” Build a culture of trying things and not of debating them, so prototypes get built and tested before anyone judges them.

**Basically,** Hide the complexity, build for yourself, and let the work show the next step.

## Protect the vision

5. “It’s better to follow the universe than those around you.” Trust your gut when people who mean well give you normal, sensible advice that goes against your vision.

6. “Rules direct us to average behaviors.” Ignore the standard playbooks of your industry, because an exceptional company needs to break the norms.

7. “While at the same time we work quickly and without delay.” Be very patient and very fast at once. Don't rush the creative process, but do the daily work without stopping.

8. “Keep voices away from the artist.” Keep business people and marketing away from the core vision early on, so the fragile work is protected before it has its full shape.

**Basically,** Trust your gut over sensible advice and keep outside voices away from the early work.

## Edit hard and aim for timeless

9. “[Add only what] makes it better and not worse.” Do a ruthless edit of your features and keep only what you can't live without.

10. “[Create] a vacuum drawing down the ideas that the universe is making available.” Give your mind times of full rest away from the daily grind, so there's open space to solve the hardest problems.

11. “Calibrate our internal meter for greatness.” Keep studying the timeless masterpieces of other industries and don't just copy your direct competitors.

12. “If you don’t do it, someone else is gonna do it.” Move fast on your best insights, because if you have an idea, its time in the market has probably come.

13. “The newest sounds have a tendency to sound old when the next new sound comes along.” Build a sound and timeless business and don't chase the fads of the moment.

**Basically,** Keep only what makes it better, rest your mind, and build for the long run, not the fad.

## Lead the team

14. “Make [them] have faith in themselves again.” Give your own strong belief in yourself to your team when the hard times come, and in a startup they always come.

15. “[Treat the work as a] reflection in a moment in time.” Launch each version without a regret that freezes you, so you learn from it and go on to the next challenge.

16. “[I just care] that the whole thing is as good as it can be.” Keep the whole startup in view and be the one person who isn't tied to the agenda of one department.

17. “Just get out of the way and let the people I’m working with be the best versions of themselves.” Help your first employees by taking away roadblocks and giving them the freedom to do their best work.

**Basically,** Give the team your belief in hard times, see the whole, and clear their roadblocks.

## Notice, finish and ship

18. “Look for what you notice but no one else sees.” Find gaps in the market by training yourself to watch closely where everyday life has friction.

19. “It’s only done when it can’t be any better.” Don't settle for anything mediocre, and let the team iterate again and again before a big launch is final.

20. “Moments and opportunities are lost [when hanging onto your work].” Ship your product and don't keep tweaking it in secret, because holding your work back takes away your next big breakthrough.

21. “If we embrace that not knowing, we’ll have a healthier experience going through life.” Meet hard problems with real humility, because when you let go of needing all the answers you open up to better solutions.

**Basically,** Notice what others miss, don't settle for mediocre, then ship and stay humble.