“Nowall those 23 languages are spoken in countries where capitalism isthriving,” Abrahamson pointed out. “Capitalism generates a lot of crap, so alot of people are drowning in their own mess.”
And with messcomes guilt. “Our surveys found that 60 percent of people feel guilty abouttheir level of messiness,” he said. “Yet moderately messy systemsoutperform both extremely messy and no mess systems.”
Whydon't people like messes? “People who don't like them might have a lowtolerance for ambiguity — those people are made very uncomfortable bymessiness. Also, if the mess doesn't fit into your categorizationscheme, it might be hard to understand.”
But doesn't ordermake things easier? “Organization is for efficiency but it's also forcontrol, and a lot of times order is used to exploit people. Messinessbrings up a lot of issues — power, aesthetics, creativity, efficiency.”
And how is his desk today? “There are things on here — I don't have any idea what they are.”
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