Messy: The Power of Disorder to Transform Our Lives

by Tim Harford

Overview

“Utterly fascinating. Tim Harford shows that if you want to be creative and resilient, you need a little more disorder in your world.” —Adam Grant, New York Times-bestselling author of Originals and Give and Take

“Engrossing.” —New York Times

From the award-winning columnist and author of the national bestseller The Undercover Economist comes a provocative big idea book about the genuine benefits of being messy: at home, at work, in the classroom, and beyond.

Look out for Tim's next book, The Data Detective.

Messy: The Power of Disorder to Transform Our Lives celebrates the benefits that messiness has in our lives: why it’s important, why we resist it, and why we should embrace it instead. Using research from neuroscience, psychology, social science, as well as captivating examples of real people doing extraordinary things, Tim Harford explains that the human qualities we value – creativity, responsiveness, resilience – are integral to the disorder, confusion, and disarray that produce them.

From the music studio of Brian Eno to the Lincoln Memorial with Martin Luther King, Jr., from the board room to the classroom, messiness lies at the core of how we innovate, how we achieve, how we reach each other – in short, how we succeed.

In Messy, you’ll learn about the unexpected connections between creativity and mess; understand why unexpected changes of plans, unfamiliar people, and unforeseen events can help generate new ideas and opportunities as they make you anxious and angry; and come to appreciate that the human inclination for tidiness – in our personal and professional lives, online, even in children’s play – can mask deep and debilitating fragility that keep us from innovation.

Stimulating and readable as it points exciting ways forward, Messy is an insightful exploration of the real advantages of mess in our lives.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780698408906
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	10/04/2016
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Tim Harford is an award-winning journalist, economist and broadcaster. He’s the author of the bestselling The Undercover Economist, The Undercover Economist Strikes Back, Adapt, and The Logic of Life. Harford is currently a senior columnist at the Financial Times and host of the BBC Radio 4 program More or Less. He has been named Economics Commentator of the Year (2014), won the Rybczynski Prize (2014–15) for the best business-relevant economics writing, and won the Bastiat Prize for economic journalism (2006). He’s a visiting fellow of Nuffield College at Oxford University and lives in Oxford with his family.

Table of Contents

Introduction: "It was unplayable." 1

1 Creativity: "You're asking the blood in your brain to flow in another direction." 7

Bowie, Eno, and Darwin: How Frustration and Distraction Help Us Solve

Problems in Art, Science, and Life

2 Collaboration: "My brain is open!" 33

Paul Erdos and the Robbers Cave: Why Tidy Teams Have More Fun but Messy Teamwork Gets More Done

3 Workplaces: "Nobody cares what you do in there." 61

Where Steve Jobs Went Wrong, and Why It's Nobody Else's Business Whether You Tidy Your Desk

4 Improvisation: "You ain't got much lime to think, 'cause you in the chair from now on."

Martin Luther King, the Help Desk, and the Unexpected Benefits of Letting Go of the Script

5 Winning: "What else matters but beating him?" 117

Bezos, Rommel, Trump: How to Use Mess as a Weapon in Business, Politics, and War

6 Incentives: "You wouldn't need a large army. You'd need a small SWAT team."

The Prime Minister and the Paramedic: The Pitfalls of Imposing Tidy Targets on a Messy World

7 Automation: "But what's happening?" 177

Flight 447 and the Jennifer Unit: When Human Messiness Protects Us from Computerized Disaster

8 Resilience: "Everything had to be neat and orderly. No mess." 205

Broken Windows. Stomach Ulcers, and the Dangerous Belief That Cleanliness Is Next to Godliness

9 Life: "Appointments are always a no-no, Planning ahead is a no-no."

Franklin, Schwarzenegger, and the Genius Who Hacked OkCupid: Why We Should Value Mess in Our Inbox, Our Conversations, and Our Children's Play

Acknowledgments 267

Notes 269

Index 287

Editorial Reviews

…the mess Harford has in mind is less physical than psychical. It's not that disruption is inherently good, or that we should strive actually to be messy…It's that rigid rules are bad, whether they err on the side of too much mess or too little. Rigidity disempowers people. In telling us to be messy, Harford urges us to recapture our autonomy…The most powerful part of the book isn't in the examples of corporate or creative success, but in the realization that mess—the autonomy that comes from discarding inflexible rules and neat labels—is important even when we don't actually want it. The mess with the greatest transformative edge may be the one that forces you out of your routine despite your certainty that what you're doing works just fine already, thank you very much.

The New York Times Book Review - Maria Konnikova

07/18/2016
Journalist Harford (The Undercover Economist) explores the counterintuitive theory that disorder is at the heart of innovation. His evidence includes the creative genius inspired by the randomness of record producer Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies and the rich history of MIT’s hastily assembled Building 20. In the business world, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos is extolled for the risk taking that carried the company through the dot-com bust. The book also examines what goes wrong in a system that is too organized. Examples include time-wasting email folders, misconceived methods for evaluating physicians’ competence, and the horrifying results of “the paradox of automation” when a pilot can’t remember how to respond in an emergency due to overreliance on automated operating systems. The book takes readers to some unexpected and entertaining places, including sarcastic corporate social-media accounts, chess strategy, and online-dating algorithms. Harford provides useful and specific instructions on putting his thesis to work, with tips on organizing projects, building an effective team, and honing improvisational skills. Weaving together lessons from history, art, technology, and social and scientific research, Harford’s theories have many potential benefits for individuals and businesses seeking to remain on the creative cutting edge, as well as profound implications for society. Agent: Zoë Pagnamenta, Zoë Pagnamenta Agency. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

Harford’s argument goes beyond aesthetics, resurfacing over and over in his engrossing narrative.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Utterly fascinating. Tim Harford shows that if you want to be creative and resilient, you need a little more disorder in your world. It's a masterful case for the life-changing magic of cluttering up.” —Adam Grant, New York Times-bestselling author of Originals and Give and Take

“[Messy] goes beyond the well-worn discussion over messy desks as a sign of creativity. . . Rather, he tackles the notion more conceptually, examining why rigid targets can wreak havoc, how unpredictable leaders get ahead, and when flexibility and improvisation matter more.” —The Washington Post

“Masterful.” —The Economist

“Messy is neither a broadside at Marie Kondo and her cult of minimalism nor a case for the hidden virtues of hoarding. Harford, an acclaimed economics journalist, isn’t so much extolling squalor as questioning the notion that order is inherently preferable for creative endeavors.” —Time

“[Messy] plays to Harford's prodigious strengths: the ability to tell engrossing human stories, and the ability to use those stories to convey complex, statistical ideas that make your life better.” —Boing Boing

“It's a very, very good book, full of wise counter-intuitions and clever insights.” —Brian Eno, musician and record producer

“A book that presents itself as an impossibly simple account of the virtues of a messy workspace, then builds to something extraordinary.” —The Age

“This absorbing book offers a different approach from instructional decluttering manuals by celebrating the successes derived from the unplanned, unscripted, and unknown.” —Library Journal

“Weaving together lessons from history, art, technology, and social and scientific research, Harford’s theories have many potential benefits for individuals and businesses seeking to remain on the creative cutting edge, as well as profound implications for society.” —Publishers Weekly

“Harford presents the strategies of disorganization as unique and enlightening and convincingly offers reinforced encouragement to those who may find themselves 'tempted by tidiness' to instead 'embrace some mess instead.'” —Kirkus

“Ranging expertly across business, politics and the arts, Tim Harford makes a compelling case for the creative benefits of disorganization, improvisation and confusion. His liberating message: you’ll be more successful if you stop struggling so hard to plan or control your success. Messy is a deeply researched, endlessly eye-opening adventure.” —Oliver Burkeman, author of The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking

“Tim’s best and deepest book.” —Tyler Cowen, New York Times-bestselling author of Average Is Over

Praise for Tim Harford

“Every Tim Harford book is a cause for celebration.” —Malcolm Gladwell

“One of the best writers who also happens to be an economist.” —Stephen Dubner

“Tim Harford is a master at picking out the perfect little story that explains some huge economic principle... He’s been my go-to guy for learning about the economics and math behind the world at large... perfectly crafted to light up the pleasure centers of my nerd brain.” —Roman Mars, 99% Invisible

From the Publisher

08/01/2016
Is a tidy and sterile environment truly ideal? Journalist and economist Harford (The Undercover Economist) explores the concept of messiness, referring to more than physical disarray. Using real-life examples from businesses such as Google and famous figures such as Martin Luther King Jr., as well as citing scientific studies, Harford suggests that messiness has its own value. Organization doesn't necessarily increase production; disruption can inspire creativity. Diversity is strength, as seen in thriving ecosystems and cities. In short, life is messy. In a chapter about winning, Harford describes how Amazon's hasty and experimental workings helped make it the company it is today. When discussing automation, he details how a plane crashed because people passively trust automatic systems that attempt to be orderly in a chaotic world. Regarding incentives, Harford exemplifies how quantifiable targets can negatively impact what they intend to improve. Other topics include collaboration, workplaces, improvisation, and resilience. VERDICT For general readers of popular psychology, sociology, or business, this absorbing book offers a different approach from instructional decluttering manuals by celebrating the successes derived from the unplanned, unscripted, and unknown. [See Prepub Alert, 4/25/16.]—Janet Clapp, N. Clarendon, VT

Library Journal

MESSY overflows with scenarios involving nature, elections, homophily, office space, and more to make its case that orderliness does not engender success and may, in fact, impede it. Given that Americans tend to equate a British accent with sophisticated orderliness, Nicholas Guy Smith might seem an odd choice to narrate an audiobook about the value of being disorderly. The obvious rationale is that author Tim Harford is British. Smith gives no other reason for listeners to question his selection. His reading is clear and engaging, with an understated suspense well suited to Harford’s tendency to leave a story hanging, relate other anecdotes and facts, and then pick the story back up again. Smith and Harford prove to be a good pairing. Together, they neatly disrupt our preconceptions of what really drives success. K.W. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

DECEMBER 2016 - AudioFile

MESSY overflows with scenarios involving nature, elections, homophily, office space, and more to make its case that orderliness does not engender success and may, in fact, impede it. Given that Americans tend to equate a British accent with sophisticated orderliness, Nicholas Guy Smith might seem an odd choice to narrate an audiobook about the value of being disorderly. The obvious rationale is that author Tim Harford is British. Smith gives no other reason for listeners to question his selection. His reading is clear and engaging, with an understated suspense well suited to Harford’s tendency to leave a story hanging, relate other anecdotes and facts, and then pick the story back up again. Smith and Harford prove to be a good pairing. Together, they neatly disrupt our preconceptions of what really drives success. K.W. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

DECEMBER 2016 - AudioFile

2016-08-21
An award-winning economist celebrates the myriad advantages of clutter and disarray.Economist and journalist Harford (The Undercover Economist Strikes Back, 2014, etc.) is an unabashed supporter of messiness, and his book, a cleareyed defense, explains and supports the many situations in which surrounding oneself with clutter and chaos can actually boost creativity, production, innovation, and even quality of life. It’s a tough sell—messiness has an inherent negative connotation attached to it, along with the stigma of laziness—but the author gets to work quickly, citing the careers of music icons David Bowie, Iggy Pop, and Brian Eno, who all benefited from their “strange chaotic working process” (which involved drawing random, gnomic instructional cards) to produce several critically acclaimed studio albums in the late 1970s. Commercially successful novelist Michael Crichton has also been well-served by “project-juggling behavior,” as have certain workplace departmental team collaborations which, Harford writes, have found success with a “willingness to allow a degree of messiness into a tidy team.” This is especially evident in MIT’s hurriedly, haphazardly designed Building 20 and Steve Jobs’ serendipity-inspired office layouts at Pixar Studios. The whirling dervish of spontaneity also historically benefited Martin Luther King Jr.’s infamous, extemporaneous 1963 speech. Harford also examines Jeff Bezos’ slyly effective scramble to prevent Amazon from buckling beneath the dot-com bust and Donald Trump’s slapdash presidential bid. The author believes that there are dangers in rigidly overorganized, structured systems, as in the example of an out-of-practice airplane pilot whose overreliance on autopilot navigation proved disastrous. From diversified neighborhood communities and school playgrounds to messy desks and algorithmic dating websites, Harford presents the strategies of disorganization as unique and enlightening and convincingly offers reinforced encouragement to those who may find themselves “tempted by tidiness” to instead “embrace some mess instead.” Though not all readers will find this unconventional perspective on disorder particularly sage, Harford’s exploration is entertaining and, despite the topic, well-constructed.

Kirkus Reviews