A Perfect Mess combines counterintuitive thinking with stories from everyday life to provide a striking new view of how our world works. Ever since Einstein's study of Brownian Motion, scientists have understood that a little disorder actually makes systems more effective. But most people still shun disorder--or suffer guilt over the mess they can't avoid. No longer! With a spectacular array of anecdotes and case studies of the useful role mess can play, here is an antidote to the accepted wisdom that tight schedules, neatness, and consistency are the keys to success. Drawing on wide range of colorful examples from the home, business, parenting, cooking, the war on terrorism, retail, and even celebrity mess, A Perfect Mess takes the reader on a tour of the front lines of beneficial mess and its enemies, including a conference of professional organizers, a pointless home neatening, a gloriously and profitably messy hardware store, cutting-edge scientists using disorder in medical breakthroughs, a look at messiness around the world, and a visit with the most freewheeling and talented musical improviser who ever lived. Along the way, coauthors Abrahamson and Freedman demonstrate that moderately messy systems use resources more efficiently, yield better solutions, and are harder to break than neat ones. A Perfect Mess will help readers assess what the right amount of disorder is for a given system, and how to apply these ideas onto a large scale--government, society-- and on a small scale--in your attic, kitchen, or office. A Perfect Mess will forever change the way we think about those unruly heaps of paper on our desks.