Book review: Messy: How To Be Creative And Resilient In A Tidy-Minded World by Tim Harford

If you’ve ever been told to tidy up your desk by your boss, make sure they get a copy of this book.

You’ll be vindicated and your boss will learn about the benefits of a little disorder in boosting creativity and innovation. Tim Harford, the undercover economist, examines the positive impacts that mess and complication can have across a wide range of situations.

From battles won by German officer Erwin Rommel because he ordered his troops to do the unexpected, to the impact of a lack of rules in a building at MIT, which resulted in some of the most creative scientific and engineering thinking of the last century, he cites clear examples of the benefits of a little chaos.

Harford’s explanations are good stories. He shows the downsides mess can create for some people: Musicians subjected to Brian Eno’s disruptive strategies hated the process that expected them to play outside their comfort zone, while investment clubs where everyone was friendly had worse results than those which had arguments about where to invest their money.

Messy: How To Be Creative And Resilient In A Tidy-Minded World

Tim Harford

Little, Brown, £20 (ebook £9.99)