3 stars

I received this book through Goodreads in exchange for an honest review. Overall, I liked this book. Harford made many excellent points regarding the drawbacks to the tidy-minded approach that is often idolized in society and the advantages of a messy life.

This book is packed with so much information. Harford pulls from so many subjects including history, psychology, economics, and sociology. The diversity of his research was very impressive.

The thing that made this book difficult for me to read was how messy it was itself. There were so many examples, which were great, but it often felt overwhelming. Also, Harford has a tendency to jump from one example to the next, then back to the first example. It feels a little chaotic at times. Harford makes great points about accepting mess, but for me personally some of those points kind of got lost in the mess of the text.

An interesting read with a unique premise, this book is as well-researched as it is persuasive.