The term Order From Chaos is widely used in many different contexts. A quick search on Google reveals that it appears in areas as diverse as Heavy Metal music, foreign policy, and science. I remember coining my own use of the term in the late 1980s when, standing in the shower in Stoke Mandeville, I faced the fact that I would never be able to employ the acronym IFC (Interplanetary Freight Corporation), but realised that, with a small change of letter, I would have a name, OFC, which reflected a real interest of mine which I could explore, develop, and exploit.
While I haven’t come across any other people investigating this exact same meaning of the term, there are, nevertheless, some who are doing things that are closely related. Two in particular seem to be highly relevant and have books which are easily acquired and consumed: Marie Kondo (The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying: a Simple Effective Way to Banish Clutter Forever), and Liz Davenport (Order From Chaos: a Six Step Plan for Organising Yourself, Your Office, and Your Life). I’ve decided that I need to read these books before I set about drawing some general conclusions from the work recorded in this blog. My musings on their contents will appear in the next couple of posts.