"If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what then, is an empty desk?" - Albert Einstein. "What if the costs of being neat and well organized often outweigh the benefits? What if being somewhat messy, in a broad sense, is a better deal?" (4) Yes... what if? This would certainly alleviate a good portion of the guilt that us "messies" have to deal with. The answer to the author's question is an unqualified "yes." The authors argue that the advantages of neatness are often illusory. In fact, the advantages are typically outweighed by the costs: "Though it flies in the face of almost universally accepted wisdom, moderately disorganized people, institutions, and systems frequently turn out to be more efficient, more resilient, more creative, and in general more effective than highly organized ones" (5). Most people assume "they should be neater and more organized and feel bad that they aren't" (5). This is not necessarily so. For example, messy desks are not indications of messy thinking. In fact, "one of the great characteristics of a messy desk [is that] it will tend to naturally reflect the way you think and work. Thought and work are unpredictable, varying, and ambiguous. They're messy. Why shouldn't your desk be messy, too?" (31-32). Mess isn't necessarily an absence of order. Many people with messy desks know exactly where to find what they are looking for, where some with neat desks work hard to find the right place where they filed something away. And what's wrong with a little sentimental mess in one's house? "[O]ur personalities tend to be more clearly expressed in our disorder than in our neatness. When we are being ruthless about ridding ourselves of what naturally accumulates around us and about meticulously straightening out what remains, we are in a sense tidying our identities. The truth is, we are all at least a bit of a mess — and all the more interesting for it" (145).
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