A Cluttered Desk

A Cluttered Desk

“If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?” —NOT an Einstein Quote!

This quote is actually one of Lawrence Peter’s, author of The Peter Principle. For the uninitiated, the Peter Principle states that “In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence”. The cluttered desk quote can be found on page 339 of the book Peter’s Quotations, yet if one does a Google search on the quote there is no mention of Lawrence Peter for several pages.

This column is just as much about what Einstein didn’t say as it is about what he did say. Einstein has said enough brilliant things that it is not necessary to manufacture quotes. Maybe you have seen a quote attributed to Einstein and would like to know if it's really his. If so, just e-mail me at douglasclark64@gmail.com and I'll feature it in a future column.

Insanity

The first appearance of this quote was from the 1981 Narcotics Anonymous Basic Text approval form. Here is the quote in context:

"We have a disease: progressive, incurable and fatal. One way or another we went out and bought our destruction on the time plan! All of us, from the junkie snatching purses to the sweet little old lady hitting two or three doctors for legal prescriptions, have one thing in common: we seek our destruction a bag at a time, a few pills at a time, or a bottle at a time until we die. This is at least part of the insanity of addiction. The price may seem higher for the addict who prostitutes for a fix than it is for the addict who merely lies to a doctor, but ultimately both pay with their lives. Insanity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results."

Curiously, this quote has also been misattributed to Benjamin Franklin and Confucius. I 'm actually quite happy that Einstein didn't say it because in quantum mechanics, you actually DO expect different results in certain instances. You can see what Einstein thought of quantum mechanics here.