Messy: The Power of Disorder to Transform Our Lives

by Tim Harford

In the business world, too, different fields can cross-fertilize. Dick Drew was a sandpaper salesman at the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company. In the 1920s he noticed the challenges of painting automobiles, and with a leap of intuition he realized that sandpaper could help. All he needed to do was produce a roll of sandpaper without the sand: the result was masking tape. Later, Drew saw DuPont’s new wrapping paper, “cellophane.” Again, he saw an opportunity. Cellophane didn’t have to be a wrapping paper at all: it could be one more product to be coated with glue and stored on a roll. Thus was Scotch tape invented.29 These days Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing is called 3M, one of the most consistently innovative companies in the world. Given its origins, should we be surprised to discover that 3M has a “flexible attention” policy? In most companies, flexible attention means goofing off on the company dime. In 3M it means playing a game, taking a nap, or going for a walk across an extensive campus to admire the deer. 3M knows that creative ideas don’t always surrender to a frontal assault. Sometimes they sneak up on us while we are paying attention to something else.30 3M also rotates its engineers from one department to another every few years. This policy is one that many companies—not to mention some employees—resist. Why make someone with years of expertise in soundproofing or flat-screen displays work on a vaccine or an air conditioner? For the company it se...