A Perfect Mess

A Perfect Mess is a book about disorder and how “being messy” can, in some ways, circumvent organized habits. I haven’t read it, but I bet it’d be interesting. I’ve actually argued that spending time organizing certain things is wasteful. There’s a fine line there, though. Organizing code is mandatory, and a lot of what I love about MVC is the organization it provides. But take gmail for example. Early on, I thought categorizing with labels was the way to go. It’s not. At least, for me it’s not. After I set the labels, I never go back to use them. It’s extra work before archiving, and there’s really no need. I just use the search if I need something—it’s much easier and faster. Plus, it returns chats, as well.

The point is the time spent digging through the mess falls short of the total time spent organizing. I’d like to read a book about this from someone who can articulate what they’re trying to say much better than I can. All I need is a reason to be messy…