"Though it flies in the face of almost universally accepted wisdom," they write, "moderately disorganized people, institutions and systems frequently turn out to be more efficient, more resilient, more creative, and in general more effective than highly organized ones."

"One of the great characteristics of a messy desk: it will tend to naturally reflect the way you think and work. Thought and work are unpredictable, varying and ambiguous. They're messy. Why shouldn't your desk be messy, too?"

They promote messy desks as catalysts of lateral thinking and intellectual serendipity, maintaining how "satisfying can be the experience of coming across something in a pile that rings a bell with regard to something else you saw on your desk a few minutes ago, or in the previous day's rummaging, facilitating a useful connection."