Introduction: "It was unplayable"
Creativity : "You're asking the blood in your brain to flow in another direction" : Bowie, Eno, and Darwin: how frustration and distraction help us solve problems in art, science, and life
Collaboration : "My brain is open!" : Paul Erdős and the robbers cave : why tidy teams have more fun but messy teamwork gets more done
Workplaces : "Nobody cares what you do in there" : where Steve Jobs went wrong, and why it's nobody else's business whether you tidy your desk
Improvisation : "You ain't got much time to think, 'cause you in the chair from now on" : Martin Luther King, the help desk, and the unexpected benefits of letting go of the script
Winning : "What else matters but beating him?" : Bezos, Rommel, Trump: how to use mess as a weapon in business, politics, and war
Incentives : "You wouldn't need a large army. You'd need a small SWAT team" : the prime minister and the paramedic: the pitfalls of imposing tidy targets on a messy world
Automation : "But what's happening?" " Flight 447 and the Jennifer Unit: when human messiness protects us from computerized disaster
Resilience : "Everything had to be neat and orderly. No mess" : broken windows, stomach ulcers, and the dangerous belief that cleanliness is next to godliness
Life : "Appointments are always a no-no. Planning ahead is a no-no" : Franklin, Schwarzenegger, and the genius who hacked OkCupid : why we should value mess in our inbox, our conversations, and our children's play.