'Ranging expertly across business, politics and the arts, Tim
Harford makes a compelling case for the creative benefits of
disorganization, improvisation and confusion. His liberating
message: you'll be more successful if you stop struggling so hard
to plan or control your success. Messy is a deeply researched,
endlessly eye-opening adventure in the life-changing magic of not
tidying up' Oliver Burkeman The urge to tidiness seems to be rooted
deep in the human psyche. Many of us feel threatened by anything
that is vague, unplanned, scattered around or hard to describe. We
find comfort in having a script to rely on, a system to follow, in
being able to categorise and file away. We all benefit from tidy
organisation - up to a point. A large library needs a reference
system. Global trade needs the shipping container. Scientific
collaboration needs measurement units. But the forces of tidiness
have marched too far. Corporate middle managers and government
bureaucrats have long tended to insist that everything must have a
label, a number and a logical place in a logical system. Now that
they are armed with computers and serial numbers, there is little
to hold this tidy-mindedness in check. It's even spilling into our
personal lives, as we corral our children into sanitised play areas
or entrust our quest for love to the soulless algorithms of dating
websites. Order is imposed when chaos would be more productive. Or
if not chaos, then . . . messiness. The trouble with tidiness is
that, in excess, it becomes rigid, fragile and sterile. In Messy,
Tim Harford reveals how qualities we value more than ever -
responsiveness, resilience and creativity - simply cannot be
disentangled from the messy soil that produces them. This, then, is
a book about the benefits of being messy: messy in our private
lives; messy in the office, with piles of paper on the desk and
unread spreadsheets; messy in the recording studio, the laboratory
or in preparing for an important presentation; and messy in our
approach to business, politics and economics, leaving things vague,
diverse and uncomfortably made-up-on-the-spot. It's time to
rediscover the benefits of a little mess.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
(1)
