Via Negativa
Via Negativa is a philosophical and practical principle β derived from apophatic theology and popularized in modern decision-making by Nassim Taleb β that holds that we often gain more from removing what is harmful, wrong, or unnecessary than from adding what seems good. In medical ethics, it underlies the Hippocratic 'first, do no harm.' In investing, it is expressed as avoiding certain losses rather than seeking certain gains. In system design, it means removing fragilities rather than adding features. The insight: subtraction is more reliable than addition because we know harms better than we know goods.