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It's ok, being a little messy won't hurt
Topic: Mess
by Oriana, 2021 Cohort
What is ‘Mess’?#
According to the Oxford dictionary, mess as a noun refers to “a dirty or untidy state of things or of a place”, or “a situation that is confused and full of problems”. Defined to be describing an overwhelmingly cluttered environment or the state of disorder, ‘mess’ is often perceived as a pejorative term. Despite this, mess is everywhere. From the clutter that is on your desk, to the way stars are scattered throughout the night sky, no individual can possibly live without generating some sort of mess, and the universe operates in an orderly yet chaotic manner. From the perspective of humanity, the existence of messiness seems to be pertinent and unavoidable. Though this could be purely due us considering something to be messy when it is even the tiniest bit complex: if it’s not black and white, not distinct in structure, or no easily identifiable pattern exists, it’s mess.
Mess vs. Chaos?#
Often, chaos is used to describe complex and more dynamic situations which are uncontrollable and evolving, whilst mess is used to iterate more trivial, less pertinent and more static situations. However, generally, it is within the observations of messiness, that deeper thought is placed on patterns and occurrences, whether coincidental or accidental, thus giving rise to chaos theory. Chaos theory contends that irregularities and disorder which seem completely random are actually perpetuated from fundamental hidden patterns and laws dependent on initial conditions. These irregularities are not random, but have an inherent initial state and follows a distinct, messy pattern. It argues that chaos, in itself, can be a system’s final state of equilibrium, which though messy, is still deterministic. The thing which makes this equilibrium seem chaotic is the fact that it is messy - that without further scrutiny the outcome would seem completely random at its face.
For example, the butterfly effect. Though now a phrase commonly used in reference to a small insignificant action which leads to an event with colossal consequences through a series of events, it originated from someone discovering inconsistency and messiness in their work. Mathematician and meteorologist Edward Lorenz had discovered that there were inconsistencies in observed runs of his weather model. The only difference in the runs was that the initial condition data input had been rounded differently. These few decimal places which seemed completely inconsequential resulted in significantly different predictions. Lorenz’s observation of mess had resulted in this concept which is closely tied to chaos theory, where the seemingly unstable properties of large classes of dynamic systems are actually deterministic, despite how chaotic and nonlinear it may appear to be.
Thus, it can be said that chaos is one of the conclusions of mess, and mess is the origin of chaos.
Mess & Creativity#
Mess is not necessarily negative. Aside from giving rise to the field of chaos theory, more mundanely, a messy environment is not necessarily detrimental. Though research has shown that messiness to some extent inhibits self-regulation and self-control, a study done by Kathleen Vohs and her team showed that messiness was actually beneficial to creativity. Conducting 3 experiments, she showed that indeed, order pushed people to prefer the more ‘classic’ option, but mess enabled people to try new things and to come up with more unconventional uses of a ping-pong ball. If tidiness and cleanliness promote discipline and convention, then disorder could promote the breaking of convention and creativity. Thus, it’s possible to utilise these conclusions. Perhaps it might be better for civil engineers to not have meticulous workspaces, and for policymakers to be debating legislative solutions to our problems in slightly more unkempt rooms.
Mess & Minimalism#
Often, if you asked a person who was messy to find something amongst their mess, they would easily be able to pinpoint exactly where the object was. It’s also common for people to organise and clean their disorderly living spaces, only to find a harder time locating their belongings after organising their things. When minimalism was extremely popular, with cleanliness, discipline, and organisation condensed into an aesthetic, many felt like living messily reflected not just a messy lifestyle, but the clutter also made them feel overwhelmed. Despite minimalism being all about reducing the amount of mess that is causing an individual stress, in actuality, forcing an individual to constantly be vigilant and organised could very often cause individuals to feel even more overwhelmed. Therefore, mess is not a bad thing. It is constant, it will always be present, thus learning to understand and form order amongst the disorder is more important than trying to eradicate mess. If the mess on your desk is adding to the clutter in your head whilst you’re trying to study, you should clean it up. If the thought of having to clean it up is stressing you out though, it might actually be better to leave it there. Things will always get messy, this could be a really good opportunity to see if you could learn from the messiness in the world around you.
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Disclaimer#
This content has been contributed by a student as part of a learning activity.
If there are inaccuracies, or opportunities for significant improvement on this topic, feedback is welcome on how to improve the resource.
You can improve articles on this topic as a student in "Unravelling Complexity", or by including the amendments in an email to: Chris.Browne@anu.edu.au
What is ‘Mess’?#
According to the Oxford dictionary, mess as a noun refers to “a dirty or untidy state of things or of a place”, or “a situation that is confused and full of problems”. Defined to be describing an overwhelmingly cluttered environment or the state of disorder, ‘mess’ is often perceived as a pejorative term. Despite this, mess is everywhere. From the clutter that is on your desk, to the way stars are scattered throughout the night sky, no individual can possibly live without generating some sort of mess, and the universe operates in an orderly yet chaotic manner. From the perspective of humanity, the existence of messiness seems to be pertinent and unavoidable. Though this could be purely due us considering something to be messy when it is even the tiniest bit complex: if it’s not black and white, not distinct in structure, or no easily identifiable pattern exists, it’s mess.
Mess vs. Chaos?#
Often, chaos is used to describe complex and more dynamic situations which are uncontrollable and evolving, whilst mess is used to iterate more trivial, less pertinent and more static situations. However, generally, it is within the observations of messiness, that deeper thought is placed on patterns and occurrences, whether coincidental or accidental, thus giving rise to chaos theory. Chaos theory contends that irregularities and disorder which seem completely random are actually perpetuated from fundamental hidden patterns and laws dependent on initial conditions. These irregularities are not random, but have an inherent initial state and follows a distinct, messy pattern. It argues that chaos, in itself, can be a system’s final state of equilibrium, which though messy, is still deterministic. The thing which makes this equilibrium seem chaotic is the fact that it is messy - that without further scrutiny the outcome would seem completely random at its face.
For example, the butterfly effect. Though now a phrase commonly used in reference to a small insignificant action which leads to an event with colossal consequences through a series of events, it originated from someone discovering inconsistency and messiness in their work. Mathematician and meteorologist Edward Lorenz had discovered that there were inconsistencies in observed runs of his weather model. The only difference in the runs was that the initial condition data input had been rounded differently. These few decimal places which seemed completely inconsequential resulted in significantly different predictions. Lorenz’s observation of mess had resulted in this concept which is closely tied to chaos theory, where the seemingly unstable properties of large classes of dynamic systems are actually deterministic, despite how chaotic and nonlinear it may appear to be.
Thus, it can be said that chaos is one of the conclusions of mess, and mess is the origin of chaos.
Mess & Creativity#
Mess is not necessarily negative. Aside from giving rise to the field of chaos theory, more mundanely, a messy environment is not necessarily detrimental. Though research has shown that messiness to some extent inhibits self-regulation and self-control, a study done by Kathleen Vohs and her team showed that messiness was actually beneficial to creativity. Conducting 3 experiments, she showed that indeed, order pushed people to prefer the more ‘classic’ option, but mess enabled people to try new things and to come up with more unconventional uses of a ping-pong ball. If tidiness and cleanliness promote discipline and convention, then disorder could promote the breaking of convention and creativity. Thus, it’s possible to utilise these conclusions. Perhaps it might be better for civil engineers to not have meticulous workspaces, and for policymakers to be debating legislative solutions to our problems in slightly more unkempt rooms.
Mess & Minimalism#
Often, if you asked a person who was messy to find something amongst their mess, they would easily be able to pinpoint exactly where the object was. It’s also common for people to organise and clean their disorderly living spaces, only to find a harder time locating their belongings after organising their things. When minimalism was extremely popular, with cleanliness, discipline, and organisation condensed into an aesthetic, many felt like living messily reflected not just a messy lifestyle, but the clutter also made them feel overwhelmed. Despite minimalism being all about reducing the amount of mess that is causing an individual stress, in actuality, forcing an individual to constantly be vigilant and organised could very often cause individuals to feel even more overwhelmed. Therefore, mess is not a bad thing. It is constant, it will always be present, thus learning to understand and form order amongst the disorder is more important than trying to eradicate mess. If the mess on your desk is adding to the clutter in your head whilst you’re trying to study, you should clean it up. If the thought of having to clean it up is stressing you out though, it might actually be better to leave it there. Things will always get messy, this could be a really good opportunity to see if you could learn from the messiness in the world around you.