A Perfect Mess: the hidden benefits of disorder: how
crammed closets, cluttered offices, and on-the-fly planning
makes the world a better place by Eric Abrahamson and David H. Freedman

Rating(1-10): 7

Overall Summary

Explores the idea that mess is not always a bad thing and, in fact, is often a good thing.
Keeping order has costs and these are often not factored in. It is a like data retrieval,
you can spend time on insertion or on deletion, it depends on how much of each you do.
the book has a good idea but it goes on way too long and brings up too many
extraneous topics. Still, the central idea is very interesting.

Chapter Summaries

1: The Cost of Neatness

"If a cluttered desk is the sign of s cluttered mine, of what then, is an empty desk?"
--Albert Einstein. Professional organizers cost a lot and don't do that much.
The cost of organization is high and the benefits uncertain. People feel guilty about
being messy, but should they?

2: A Mess Sampler

Messy desks can work well. You go through and priority every so often. It keeps current
things on top. "Messy" natural lawns can be better than grass where it doesn't belong.
Corporate planning very seldom works. You need to stay flexible.
Noise can help recognize signals.
It did not work to get rid of noise in cell phones, we need it to know the connection
is still there and to mask out other noises.

3: The History of mess

Farming created the need for order. Frederick Taylor in US in early 20th century.
Cheaper By the Dozen was taken from a real case who was a Taylor follower.

4: The Benefits of Mess

Arnold Schwarzenegger doesn't have a schedule. Neatness does not allow serendipity.
Fleming and penicillin Creative disorder. ARCHITECT FRANK Gehry did not provide blueprints,
he wanted the builders to fill in the details. Guerrillas and terrorists strength is their
randomness and disorganization. They are hard to stop because there is no centralization.

5: Messy People

It can be bad to be too focused. You need to mix things up.

6: Messy Homes

Nothing much interesting.

7: Mess and Organizations

Noguchi file organization: always put the most recently accessed files on the left.
Some mentions of open source and issues related to the wisdom of crowds.

8: Messy Leadership

The marines say "Plan early. Plan twice."

9: The Politics of Mess

Urban renewal, cities work better when they are messy.
Some of the ideas come down to decentralization.

10: Optimizing Mess

Introduce a little randomness.
BananaSlug search, adds a random search term to all searches.
google-like searching means you don't need to keep things organized.
World Series of Poker, tends not to have repeat winners,
presumably luck plays a big role.

11: Messy Thinking

Stochastic resonance, noise can help system detect patterns.

12: Pathological Mess

Some about ADHD.

13: The Aesthetics of Mess

Mess can be artistic. Bach was a big improvisor. Some riffs on smell.