A Messy “Desk” in Literature
Is this the office of another self-employed ADDex?
Under some shady trees I find Bill’s Cycle Shop but no Bill. A passerby says he has “maybe gone fishing somewhere,” leaving his shop wide open. We really are in the West. No one would leave a shop like this open in Chicago or New York.
Inside I see that Bill is a mechanic of the “photographic mind” school. Everything lying around everywhere. Wrenches, screwdrivers, old parts, old motorcycles, new parts, new motorcycles, sales literature, inner tubes, all scattered so thickly and clutteredly you can’t even see the workbenches under them. I couldn’t work in conditions like this but that’s just because I’m not a photographic-mind mechanic. Bill can probably turn around and put his hand on any tool in this mess without having to think about where it is. I’ve seen mechanics like that. Drive you crazy to watch them, but they get the job done just as well and sometimes faster. Move one tool three inches to the left though, and he’ll have to spend days looking for it.
–”Phaedrus”, in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values by Robert Pirsig (1974).
“Move one tool three inches to the left though, and he’ll have to spend days looking for it.” No kidding. Recent articles suggest that a messy desk is detrimental to your career. I suspect this applies equally to messy garages, if you make a living there.
ADDexec relevance? None in particular beyond the occasional tidbit like this one. That said, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is an amazing and important book that I’d recommend to anyone who thinks about quality in life, and why we sometimes do things well or poorly.
