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A review by qtpieash3
A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder - How Crammed Closets, Cluttered Offices, and On-The-Fly Planning Make the World a Better Place by Eric Abrahamson, David H. Freedman
3.0
I really liked this book; I like being organized and neat, and do tend to stress about the areas I'm still messy in. "A Perfect Mess" though, is a great antidote to the pressure to always be neater, more organized, or more put together.
Mess can be ok; this book was kind of permission to let myself be messy in some areas. Piles of things in certain places don't bother me, but a kitchen full of dirty dishes and countertop full of crumbs, will drive me batty. And that's ok. The US Marines actually have a saying: "Plan early, plan twice" which means that since circumstances can change so quickly, planning too early can lead to having to start the planning over when key components change.
Abrahamson argues that a neat and orderly system is constantly struggling to fight off randomness, and when randomness randomly leaks in, the system is thrown off. The benefits of mess include flexibility, completeness, resonance, invention, efficiency, and robustness. Abrahamson deals with each benefit in its own chapter and includes lots of anecdotal stories and examples to explain the benefits of mess. For example, the scientist who identified penicillin did so after leaving his office in disarray and came back to see something growing in petri dishes he had left out.
This book had some remniscent feelings of "Freakonomics", combining unusual pieces to draw a conclusion from. One example that sticks out is the comparison between boxing and cage fighting - boxing seems much more neat and orderly compared to the no-holds-barred cage fighters. However, the heavily padded boxing gloves leave little in the way of cuts and gashes, meaning that fights can last longer then cage fights, which allows more opportunities for brain injuries in boxing. The Journal of the American Medial Association have found that boxers who have competed in 20+ rounds have a 75% rate of observable brain damage. There are no reported incidents of cage fighters, however, who have been diagnosed with severe or chronic brain damage.
Overall, this was a pretty intriguing book. It did a feel bit... messy, for lack of a better term, in terms of organization, but that could be due to the fact that I read this book in short bursts versus a more prolonged period. An entertaining read though that I would recommend.
Mess can be ok; this book was kind of permission to let myself be messy in some areas. Piles of things in certain places don't bother me, but a kitchen full of dirty dishes and countertop full of crumbs, will drive me batty. And that's ok. The US Marines actually have a saying: "Plan early, plan twice" which means that since circumstances can change so quickly, planning too early can lead to having to start the planning over when key components change.
Abrahamson argues that a neat and orderly system is constantly struggling to fight off randomness, and when randomness randomly leaks in, the system is thrown off. The benefits of mess include flexibility, completeness, resonance, invention, efficiency, and robustness. Abrahamson deals with each benefit in its own chapter and includes lots of anecdotal stories and examples to explain the benefits of mess. For example, the scientist who identified penicillin did so after leaving his office in disarray and came back to see something growing in petri dishes he had left out.
This book had some remniscent feelings of "Freakonomics", combining unusual pieces to draw a conclusion from. One example that sticks out is the comparison between boxing and cage fighting - boxing seems much more neat and orderly compared to the no-holds-barred cage fighters. However, the heavily padded boxing gloves leave little in the way of cuts and gashes, meaning that fights can last longer then cage fights, which allows more opportunities for brain injuries in boxing. The Journal of the American Medial Association have found that boxers who have competed in 20+ rounds have a 75% rate of observable brain damage. There are no reported incidents of cage fighters, however, who have been diagnosed with severe or chronic brain damage.
Overall, this was a pretty intriguing book. It did a feel bit... messy, for lack of a better term, in terms of organization, but that could be due to the fact that I read this book in short bursts versus a more prolonged period. An entertaining read though that I would recommend.