A Perfect Mess
Author(s): Eric Abrahamson
Like the bestselling Freakonomics or Blink, here is a book that combines a professor's expertise with stories from everyday life to provide a striking new view of how our world works. Ever since Einstein's study of Brownian Motion, scientists have understood that a little disorder actually makes 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 anecdotes and case studies of the useful role mess can play, here is an antidote to the accepted wisdom that tight schedules, 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, co-authors Abrahamson and Freedman demonstrate that moderately messy systems use resources more efficiently, yield better solutions and are harder to break than neat ones. A PERFECT MESS will help readers assess what the right amount of disorder is for a given system, and how to apply these ideas on to a large scale - government or society - and on a small scale - (in your attic, kitchen or office).
Product Information
A Perfect Mess is the perfect antidote to the accepted wisdom that tight schedules, neatness and consistency are the keys to success. Foreign rights sold in a dozen languages. 'Forget everything we told you last week about the importance of a clean and paperless office. In A PERFECT MESS: THE HIDDEN BENEFITS OF DISORDER, Eric Abrahamson and David H Freedman set out to prove that a little disorder makes us more productive than tight schedules, neatness and tidy desks' Guardian 'An entertaining and convincing attack on conventional wisdom' Times Educational Supplement 'I hope this book becomes a bestseller. It is time that someone challenged the tautology that order is good, therefore it is good to have order' Sunday Times
"Timely reassurance to those of us who fear and despise pristine houses, perfect schedules and neat-freakery of every stripe" Observer "provocative and often amusing...Eric Abrahamson and David Freedman's thesis will come as a relief to many" Sunday Telegraph "this engaging and surprisingly well-ordered book... is the perfect excuse to break that new year's resolution to keep your desk tidy" Guardian
Eric Abrahamson is the youngest ever full professor of management at Columbia University's School of Business. David H. Freedman is a business and science journalist who writes for the Atlantic Monthly, Newsweek and Wired. David H. Freedman is a business and science journalist who writes for the Atlantic Monthly, Newsweek and Wired.
General Fields
- :
- : Orion Publishing Co
- : Phoenix (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd )
- : 0.27
- : 27 December 2007
- : 198mm X 129mm X 21mm
- : United Kingdom
- : books
Special Fields
- : Eric Abrahamson
- : Paperback
- : 8-Feb
- : 650.1
- : 336