Messy By Tim Harford

Messy is yet another non-fiction books that falls in the genre created for writers, economist, and area experts etc. to expound on an amorphous topic by using examples from many different areas of life. They are usually written along the lines of a self-help/business/leadership book. They use the famous case study, combination of stories of the intrepid researchers, some rudimentary statistics to show that there is gravitas in what they say and it is all wrapped up in a nice tidy package and conclusions.

Even though I am cynical about the packaging and structure of the genre, I actually enjoyed Messy very much. A bit of confirmation bias maybe at play here since I am personally “messy” in the way I work, the way I organize myself, and the way I think abstractly.  So it is with great excitement that I ordered this book. Tim Harford had me at hello.

Fortunately for me, he delivered on what he had promised. I thoroughly enjoyed the read and he did get me thinking about the nature and beauty of disorder in the things that affects us.

Harford, a very well-known writer and economist is the author of a number of bestselling books, mostly found in the business best-seller list. I suspect this one will also be climbing the charts. Truth of the matter is that Harford is a very thorough researcher, an excellent writer and explainer, and never lets the details fog up the big picture for the reader.

The thesis of the book is captured in the sub title of the book itself: The Power of Disorder to Transform our lives. That is: disorder is good for us and we just get ourselves in trouble when we try to inject too much order and discipline into our daily lives. Harford divides his tome into none distinct words, each one is the lead in for a number of stories pertinent to the topic of messiness. They are: Creativity, Collaboration, Workplaces, Improvisation, Winning, Incentives, Automation, Resilience, and Life. He employs examples from music, politics, business, forestry, architecture, military strategy, education, engineering, mathematics, life sciences etc.  to illustrate his point, all the while entertaining us with his stories, and Harford is a very good story teller. Most importantly, he is also very good at weaving all these disparate stories into a cogent and logical thesis. I deliberately did not wish to give examples of his stories in this review because I did not want to deprive other readers the chance to read Harford’s prose and steal his thunder. It is best if you read the book.

Time and again, Harford persuasively tells us his stories and engages us into the depths of his thoughts regarding the main theme. He is thoroughly convincing in his arguments. He chides the people in the stories about being too ordered, too disciplined, and too devoted to linear thinking. Even though I was convinced early on in the reading process, I feel like his writing provided me with even more proof of what I already believed and made me think about other extensions of the messiness idea. I will be referring back to this book as I ponder his ideas.

I obviously recommend the book.

Resolutions. New Years or Otherwise.

Resolutions has always seemed artificial and forced to me, especially the New Year resolution. It seemed contrived because there is nothing in the human behavioral set of rules that says that you have to renew yourself and create these resolutions at the beginning of the calendar year.

First, because the calendar is a contrived mechanism created to make humans able to track time in an easier manner. The fact that we are following a solar calendar versus a lunar calendar makes the yearly resolution seem even more contrived.

The act of writing and proclaiming a resolution is contrived. Why is it that we feel the need to declare our intentions in a formal way and written in a formal list. I know people who are very formal about the idea, saying that this is a way to create a mechanism for our friends to hold us accountable to what we had pledged. Indeed, if this is the case, when does this not make our free will and discipline a joke? If we cannot have the discipline to hold fast to our will then won’t we have greater issues with ourselves than just a resolution?

Let us now look at the motivation for the resolution. Is it a means to declare to our friends and loved ones what our intention is or is it a way for us to call attention to what we are saying for selfish reasons? Is the resolution just a means for publicly touting our own virtues? Is this not just some form of bragging about our own purity of purpose? I don’t need to let the world know I plan on abstaining from alcohol, I declare it to receive the rewards of being so honest and forthright in the most public way possible.   

Indeed, doesn’t our promise to our self to do whatever it is that we wish to aspire to mean more to ourselves rather than to others? If that is indeed the case, then the public declaration of the resolution is just so much public show of our virtue and purity. Generally this is not a strong basis for discipline and resilience. Hence the failure rate in upholding these resolutions.

Make a resolution to yourself for yourself, let no one else know. Your conscience will be clearer and you are truer to yourself. Making the resolution public is pointless. Holding to your resolution to your own standards while no one is looking is what we need to aim for.