You know what’s funny about building things.
The first instinct is always to add.
Add padding.
Add features.
Add complexity.
We added px-4 padding to everything.
Then we added negative margins to break it out.
Then we realized we were fighting ourselves.
So we removed it all.
Then we added it back, but only where it actually belonged.
Three rounds to learn what should have taken one.
Here’s the pattern that keeps repeating.
We see a gap.
A white space on the side of the screen.
It feels wrong, so we add padding.
Now components with backgrounds look broken because they don’t extend all the way.
So we add negative margins to pull them out.
Now the HTML is fighting itself.
Two CSS rules canceling each other out.
Both there because we were solving the symptom, not the problem.
The real solution was simpler.
Padding belongs only where there’s content that needs breathing room.
Not everywhere.
Not as a blanket.
Just where it matters.
We wasted time adding layers instead of understanding what the page actually needed.
This happens in code all the time.
It happens in business too.
We add processes because we’re scared of chaos.
We add meetings because we’re scared of silence.
We add features because we’re scared of simplicity.
But every addition has a cost.
It makes the system harder to change.
It makes the team slower to move.
It makes the user experience heavier.
The best solutions don’t add.
They subtract.
They remove the thing that was never supposed to be there.
They stop fighting the problem and let the right answer breathe.
Most people will spend their career adding.
The people who win spend it removing.