Len Robbins

What do Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein, Mark Twain, and yours truly have in common?

Besides, of course, that three of us are dead and that we’re all expert ventriloquists?

Messy desks.

My desk is so cluttered with newspapers and cameras and paper clips and bills and Doritos and anvils that I couldn’t tell you what color the desk is. A voyage to the bottom of my desk later revealed the desk to be dark brown in hue, and (Surprise!) made of wood. And I also found a neighborhood cat who was recently reported missing, and an Earth, Wind & Fire cassette tape.

My untidy workspace is often met with negative or sarcastic comments from my wife, visitors, my wife, co-workers, probation officers, and my wife. I have tried to organize the area around my desk. It lasts mere minutes before I reassemble it into a jumble.

Recent research has found that I can’t be blamed for the disarray that surrounds this way. I have a disorder that causes disorder. Like my chaotic comrades Steve and Al and Mark, I suffer from the curse of being a creative genius.

“Disorderly environments seem to inspire breaking free of tradition, which can produce fresh insights,” said Dr. Kathleen D. Vohs, a behavioral scientist at the University of Minnesota who led a recent study on the topic. According to the study, featured in a story in the New York Times magazine, “disordered offices encouraged originality and a search for novelty.” That’s basically all I do, all day, every day – search for novelty.

She advises that if one is looking to think “outside the box” for a future project, they need to clutter up their workspace. Mission accomplished – hourly.

Another study, conducted by the Columbia University Business School, concurs.

“Creativity is spurred when things that we tend not to organize in the same category come together. When you allow some messiness into a system, new combinations can result,” said Columbia Business School Professor Eric Abrahamson, who along with fellow researcher, David H. Freedman, wrote the book “A Perfect Mess” on the topic. “If you keep all your tools in the tool shed and all your kitchen utensils in the kitchen, you might never think of using a kitchen utensil as a tool or vice-versa.”

Which is why I keep my kitchen utensils on my desk at work, and in my tool shed, and in the closet. Oh, and a chinois, a spatula, and a zester in the back seat of my car.

See, being too lazy to file or put papers in their proper place, or an anvil or spatula, wasn’t just me being lazy. It was latent creativity.

“If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?”

– Albert Einstein

I think I’ll print that out and place it on my desk for later.

© Len Robbins 2024