I think it’s more of a fundamental law than a theory… Adding is just plain easier than subtracting. Gain 5 pounds… give me a weekend with some Chubby Hubby ice cream. Lose 5 pounds… much trickier.
As a freshmen in college I can remember browsing through a stack of books at the library (pre-Wikipedia days) looking for sweet little quotes I could add to my humanities paper to get it over the 5-Page requirement… easy stuff.
Tonight I spent 3 hours with my MBA buddies huddled around some laptop computers and a plate of chocolate cookies… our goal… trim down our strategy paper to fulfill the requirement that it be less than 20 PAGES LONG… a painstakingly difficult and time-consuming task. Adding fluff is a whole lot easier… and takes much less focus. If we decide to cut out too much good information…. our A+ paper becomes an A- paper… or a B+ paper… or a B paper…. I think my MBA buddy John Dutson said it best… that was FUN… F-U-N… FUN… Right John… now pass me the Chubby Hubby!