Messy: How to be creative and resilient in a tidy-minded world, by Tim Harford
Tim Harford is one of the most well-known columnists at Financial Times, writing regularly on the influence of economics in our lives and hosting Radio 4’s More or Less programme. Messy, his latest book, attempts to describe how our drive to create order and predictability in a messy world is not helping us in the long run.
NHS targets, over-reliance on technology and prescriptives for a tidy desk at work all come in for criticism, because humans are messy, unpredictable, and above all, creative.
That messy desk, which might drive the clean freak crazy, is actually highly effective for its user because it creates more instant visual queues about what job to do next; The reason it is an eyesore for someone else is because it contains no signposts for them.
In fact, Harford argues, those who establish complicated filing systems create more work for and a greater burden on themselves, perversely making it longer to find what they need.
Another consequence of trying to create a tidy world is the notion of setting oversimplistic targets. Mr Harford cites two NHS examples: always seeing a GP within 48 hours and ambulances reaching the sick person in ‘immediately life-threatening’ situations within eight minutes.
In the first example, the pressure to see patients within 48 hours means it is impossible to book a follow-up appointment in a week’s time because the diary must always be kept clear, forcing the patient to the back of the queue along with everyone else when re-booking.
In the second example, the eight-minute deadline means that in many cases – unless the deadline is ignored – ambulance services could ‘game’ the system by downgrading ‘life-threatening’ case status so that drivers did not need to worry about breaching the target, or skipping a patient all together if the driver is in breache of the eight-minute target. While the above examples relate to politically motivated, over-simplistic initiatives imposed upon a chaotic world, there are consequences on our collective psychology.
There is much criticism of society’s over-reliance on algorithms to ‘smoothe’ experience or protect us from harm. However, removing minor bumps leaves us unprepared for the big bumps when computers fail – our drive to create a ‘safe’ world leaves us completely unprepared to handle risks.
Mr Harford is a strong proponent of a more random type of ‘wild’ play for children, claiming that derelict land with old tyres is counterintuively ‘safer’ than the conventional swings and roundabouts with rubber matting. The wilder play might appear more dangerous, but children adjust, becoming more focused and alert.
I imagine that many readers might can cite the beauty of a good client management system and the number of children’s accidents on derelict land. But even here Mr Harford is ready. To illustrate one’s inability to impose a set of rules on a complicated world, he cites the example of American economoist Harry Markowitz, who won the Nobel prize for his work on portfolio theory in 1990. Markowitz used a simple ‘rule of thumb’ by investing his personal assets in a straightforward mixture of stocks and bonds.
Messy is a worthwhile read for those who believe there are too many rules that fail to address the problems of our complex world.
Published by Little Brown Book Group
Melanie Tringham is features editor of Financial Adviser
