Synopses & Reviews
"An engaging polemic against the neat-police who hold so much sway over our lives." -The Wall Street Journal
Enthusiastically embraced by readers everywhere, this groundbreaking book is an antidote to the accepted wisdom that tight schedules, neatness, and consistency are the keys to success.
With an astounding array of anecdotes and case studies of the useful role mess can play in business, parenting, cooking, the war on terrorism, hardware stores, and even the meteoric career of Arnold Schwarzenegger, coauthors Abrahamson and Freedman demonstrate that moderately messy systems use resources more efficiently, yield better solutions, and are harder to break than neat ones. From clutter to time sprawl to blurring of categories, A PERFECT MESS will forever change the way we think about disorder.
"A compelling and comical tour of humanity's guilt-ridden love affair with accidents, messes, and randomness... Combine the world-is-not-as-it-seems mindset of Freakonomics with the delicious celebration of popular culture found in Everything Bad Is Good for You to get the cocktail-party-chatter-ready anecdotes of 'messiness leading to genius' in A PERFECT MESS." -Fast Company
Review
"[As] with Freakonomics and Gladwell's books, the attempt is both thought-provoking and fun." San Francisco Chronicle
Synopsis
Touting the benefits of disorder, chaos, and mess, a groundbreaking study explains how and why a little disorder actually makes systems more effective, citing examples from business, cooking, parenting, politics, and other fields to demonstrate that the right amount of disorder yields better solutions, uses resources more efficiently, and is more durable.
Synopsis
Ever since Einstein's study of Brownian Motion, scientists have understood that a little disorder can actually make systems more effective. But most people still shun disorder-or suffer guilt over the mess they can't avoid. No longer With a spectacular array of true stories and case studies of the hidden benefits of mess,A Perfect Mess overturns the accepted wisdom that tight schedules, organization, neatness, and consistency are the keys to success. Drawing on examples from business, parenting, cooking, the war on terrorism, retail, and even the meteoric career of Arnold Schwarzenegger, coauthors Abrahmson and Freedman demonstrate that moderately messy systems use resources more efficiently, yield better solutions, and are harder to break than neat ones.Applying this idea on scales both large (government, society) and small (desktops, garages), A Perfect Mess uncovers all the ways messiness can trump neatness, and will help you assess the right amount of disorder for any system. Whether it's your company's management plan or your hallway closet that bedevils you, this book will show you why to say yes to mess.
About the Author
David H. Freedman is the author of three books, and is a business and science journalist who has written for
The Atlantic Monthly, Newsweek, and
Wired, among others. He lives in Massachusetts.
Eric Abrahamson is a professor of management at Columbia University's School of Business, and author of Change Without Pain. He lives in New York.