We are not that different than insects. Visual clutter causes us stress. Perhaps this is hard coded deep in the truck of our evolutionary DNA tree pre-bug/human branching. Perhaps not [2]. It doesn't matter - visual clutter stresses us out. Some people a lot. Everyone some.
Dijkstra [3] puts the anal into analytics [4], but check out his desk and office - sparse and clean and it looks like one could really think and work in his office. Contrast with your desk - I suspect there is a difference. I know looking at my desk right now makes me embarrassed in comparison.
So what? The key idea is that clutter is stressful. Wait - oh... Our lives are cluttered with clutter. Our homes bursting with junk, our desks piled with papers, our schedules bursting with entries. Emails. Facebook. Chores. Meetings. Hobbies. Books to read, TV to watch, things to do. We better multitask to get things done - so much clutter that we are doing multiple things at once, with the predictable increase in stress and reduction in effectiveness [5]. Just thinking about the clutter can stress you out. Arg.
To improve ones life one must declutter.
How?
Simple, but not easy. You know how. You simply need a pleasant nag to push you.
Enter Leo and Power of Less. The book is short, has ample white space and sparse content (with plenty of bullet lists). Aesthetically the book is nice [6], and it is easy to read. I don't think I confronted a single new idea - but the ideas are nicely discussed and packaged. You don't read books like this for deep insights or new narratives: you read them to get your logistics down and to offer a simple program to follow to get results. The book delivers. The style reflects the message. The message is clear and simple. The road to success is laid out cleanly. I could summarize the key points here - basically kill clutter (from the frame of tighten focus), do 30 day small habit changes to lock them in [7], chew your food [8], etc. but you should simply get the book if you read this far without your eyes glazing over or rolling [9]. The book is simple. Uncluttered and, if followed, uncluttering.
Lowdown:
- Like bugs we get stressed at clutter.
- Our lives are essentially defined by clutter.
- We thus have highly stressed lives.
- Leo will show you how to declutter.
Notes:
[1] One of the more interesting science reads you should consider getting is about insects and crops (American Pests: The Losing War on Insects from Colonial Times to DDT
): I heard an overview talk on this and it has been on my "to read" list since - very interesting! In writing this entry I am reminded about this, and have ordered the book.[2] Here is one story: when there is clutter it is hard to determine if there is a predator or not. If in a cluttered environment you better be on the watch - i.e. stress levels will go up. Our deep evolutionary ancestors that stressed in cluttered (i.e. many hiding places) environments lived. Those who didn't got pruned.
[3] "EWD" were little notes on various ideas that Dijkstra would disseminate. That's right - Dijkstra had a blog before there were blogs!
[4] You wouldn't want him in charge of all software projects - almost nothing would ever ship, but you would want him in charge of projects relating to airplane software and nuclear power plants. I shudder each time I trust my life to some hack coder. I also suspect that there is a watch dog timer somewhere in the nuclear warhead response system either in the US or Russia that has some bizarre bug in it. Tic tic tic... On a related note: every software house should have a battle wizened guru like Dijkstra - someone to speak in enigmatic riddles, that codes mathematics, that you can climb the mountain to visit when in need of some good old fashioned advice. His code and style is concise and elegant. It is honed to perfection, the honing process leaving only pure beauty and substance. Sure, the honing process takes forever so everyone can't do this (or has the patience for it) - but the insights that this master gains will lead to great advice and can temper the hacks that are needed to get things done. This wizard likely schemes away, cackling to himself in an ocean of parenthesis...
[5] Does anyone really think that the quality of ones actions can remain the same when focus is diminished?
[6] My copy has a printers error where ink splots are sprayed across some pages. This, fittingly, gives a very Zen like beauty, rather than the expected annoyance of such a problem. I say fittingly as Leo is the author of a popular blog "Zen Habits".
[7] Leo gives many good reasons why. One he omits is this - if you do 2+ new habits you will not be able to tell which action gives gains, or if one action is negative and bogs down the rest. An experimentalist does not want to act in an uncontrolled manner - pick one variable and change it. Observe results. Pick another variable. Observe results. Etc.
[8] Seriously. Leo is all about chewing your food. Er, I mean, Leo is all about engaging with the present. Which includes chewing and enjoying your food and its flavor. Truly connecting with the present and subjective reality improves your life.
[9] Or look at his blog, or scan the table of contents and first few pages on Amazon to get the key point that he then follows up in the rest of the book. If you dig that, you will dig the book. Dirt simple message, nicely done.
