Add, Then Trim

More from Building MarrowMinded — the reading app I build with Claude Code. Start here: I built MarrowMinded.

MarrowMinded started tiny. One screen, a lesson a day, almost nothing on it. I liked it that way.

Then I used it. And using it gave me ideas — a chat to ask about the book, a way to jump to any chapter, a progress bar, quicker navigation. Each one was useful. Each one earned its place.

A year later I opened it one morning and felt tired before I’d read a word. All those useful things, stacked on top of each other, had quietly turned a calm little app into a busy one.

Every feature was a yes

Each thing I added was a yes. Yes, that’s handy. Yes, I’d use that. And every yes was right on its own.

The trouble is that yes-es pile up. Nothing felt like clutter the day I added it. It only added up.

So I did something I don’t do often enough: I stopped adding, and spent a whole round just taking away.

Why not trim as I go?

Good question. I asked myself the same thing. If I’d cut while I built, it would never have gotten cluttered in the first place.

Here’s my best answer: adding and trimming are two different modes, and I’m bad at holding both at once.

When I’m building, I’m saying yes — chasing the next useful thing, in love with what could be there. When I’m trimming, I’m saying no — cold, protective of the reader’s attention, happy to delete. One mode looks forward at what could exist. The other looks at what already does and asks if it earns its keep.

Flipping between them every ten minutes is exhausting, and I’m not sure it even works. So now I don’t. I build in one round and trim in another. Expand, then contract.

The trimming round

This time I didn’t guess at a fix. I asked Claude to draw four minimalist designs at once and show them side by side — same screen, four looks. Making the options was nearly free, so instead of defending my first idea, I just compared and picked the one that stood out.

Then the cutting. Four stacked bars at the top became two. Grey boxes became open space. The tools all stayed — jump, chat, progress — I just pulled the noise out from around them. Same app, every button still there. It just stopped shouting.

One nice catch: I almost shipped it off the mockups, then ran it for real and found my own chat messages were white text on a cream bubble in dark mode. Invisible. A picture would never have shown it. Check the real thing, not the flattering screenshot.

Takeaways

• Build in rounds. Add in one pass, trim in another. Trying to do both at once is a different job every ten minutes.
• Every feature is a yes, and yes-es pile up. Nothing feels like clutter the day you add it. Schedule a round of no.
• Minimalism is removing layers, not features. Keep the tools. Cut the noise around them.
• Compare, don’t guess. A few cheap options side by side beat one idea you’ll only defend.

When did your side project last get a round of no? Mine was overdue. → olekwrites.com/marrowminded