Perfection is boring. Order is overrated. Mess is fertile.
Sometimes I wonder precisely how the rise in popularity of Newtonian physical reality, and the scientific method, impacted creativity.
We’re so left-brain dominated as a species over the last few decades—centuries? It’s like we’ve replaced our fluid, intuitive, creative method with the more rigidly structured, analytical one.
Even chaos is often dismissed as failure or lack of discipline, but it’s actually the birthplace of originality. When things fall out of order, we see new patterns. Chaos isn’t the enemy of creativity — it’s the raw material.
A great example of this is how a messy desk can be a sign of creative genius— this is often attributed to be the case because messy environments can encourage more divergent and unconventional thinking.
Messiness is not a flaw; it’s a portal.
“I will stand up for messiness not because I think messiness is the answer to all life’s problems, but because I think messiness has too few defenders. I want to convince you that there can sometimes be a certain magic in mess.”
Excerpt From Messy: The Power of Disorder to Transform Our Lives by Tim Harford