Less: Accomplishing More by Doing Less

Fourteenth-century English logician William of Ockham (also “Occam”) is famous for his eponymous “Occam’s razor,” a well-known philosophical principle that basically says that the simplest explanation for an occurrence is likely to be the most accurate. So it is fitting that Zen teacher/businessman Marc Lesser quotes the medieval minimalist to introduce Chapter 3, “The Less Manifesto,” of his insightful new paperback. “It is vain,” goes the quote, “to do with more what can be done with less.” Lesser rounds out that value judgement with plenty of accurate observations: “Almost without our realizing it, busyness has become a badge of honor. … Even when we throw ourselves into busyness with the best of intentions, it can become a way of avoiding deeper issues of purpose and meaning in our life…” He also offers helpful analysis and practical self-help solutions dealing with the hindrances (fear, assumptions, distractions, resistance) that keep one from living a more simple, focused, creative and fulfilling life. Less is a pleasure from beginning to end, for its user-friendly readability, its insights, and for the chord it should strike with any reader who desires to break free from the stress of 21st-century treadmill craziness.