I'm doing a review for WPSU-FM's Bookmark show next week about A Perfect Mess. Here's the text of my review:
As soon as I picked up A Perfect Mess, I couldn't put it down.. Of course, if I did, someone would probably trip over it. You see, A Perfect Mess is my life's anthem.
The authors seem highly qualified. Eric Abrahamson is a professor of management at Columbia Business School. David Freedman is the technology columnist at Inc. magazine. They’ve given the book two subtitles--probably to make its library catalog entry messier. The first is "The Hidden Benefits of Disorder"; the second is the very optimistic, "How crammed closets, cluttered offices, and on-the-fly planning make the world a better place."
Messiness makes "the world a better place?" The authors are quick to say, this does NOT give you a free pass to be a total slob. That's what I wanted when I picked up the book. They define messiness as “moderate disorganization,” not pathological sloppiness. A Perfect Mess describes practices, people, and organizations that work better because they tolerate moderate messiness.
Meanwhile, the world is biased towards neatness. That's why we have closet organizers. That's why we think someone with a messy desk is "probably a failure" in other aspects of his life. Such bias is a mistake, the authors contend, because a certain amount of messiness allows for adaptability and creativity. In fact they consider creativity a by-product of mess.
The book is laced with examples. One Japanese innovation is called the Noguchi filing system. As new papers come into your office, you put them in envelopes, label them, and stack them on edge on a shelf. Whenever you use something from an envelope, you return the envelope to the far left side of the stack. Soon, the most used stuff is on the left and the least used stuff is on the right. Brilliant! Of course, if you turn this "organization" 90 degrees and put the envelopes flat on your desk, you’ve got the average "messy" desk.
As a newfound disciple, I'll add my favorite example from personal experience -- my e-mail inbox. Most people painstakingly file e-mail messages in folders. That's great until they can't find the message in the folder they thought they put it in.
I never file mail. Computers are fast enough and storage is plentiful enough that I can instantly find a message based on sender, subject, or date. Filing stuff ensures I’ll never find it. By the way, several of my co-workers have adopted my model--including my boss
The authors do fall flat when they try to categorize messiness. But doesn’t that defy the premise of their book? Overall, though, I enjoyed this book so much I gave to my Mom for Mothers' Day. It's not a reflection on you, Mom. It’s just how I think.
I'm halfway through this book now on your recommendation and it's an interesting read. My favorite quote so far goes something like Making your bed after you get out of it is analogous to tidying your shoe laces after taking your shoes off. That was all it took for me - no more bed making in my house.