In praise of clutter

摘要

On the six square feet next to the com-puter on which this article is being written, a complex ecology has developed. There are approximately (it is impossible to be precise without disturbing the natural order) 100 assorted print-outs (e-mails, web pages, newspaper articles), 12 books, ten academic articles, six pamphlets, five notebooks, three newspapers, two maga-zines, two faxes, two telephone books, one file containing further faxes and print-outs, six pens, one box of matches, one key (ori-gin unknown) and one handheld organ-iser. Some of this is being used in the writ-ing of this article. Some of it will be used in the writing of future articles. Some of it will never be used at all, but will eventu-ally, when the reason why this correspon-dent originally thought it so interesting has faded, be thrown in the bin.