Why is it when we put so much effort into things that it takes less effort to ruin it all? Well, as it happens, I found an answer in the book An Outsider’s Guide to Humans by Camilla Pang, “Entropy” This strangely simple word is the root cause of everything that goes wrong in the world. Okay, maybe I’m being hyperbolic and also slightly nihilistic.
What is Entropy?
Let’s work through this together and find the answer first. Well, there are 3 main definitions of Entropy. The one that i will focus on for this post is the thermodynamic definition, as that was in the book, and what first drew me to writing this post:
This definition is based on classical thermodynamic theory, as a German physicist named Rudolf Clausius was the first to discover the effect and coin the term from Greek en- = in + trope = a turning (point). There are two laws of 4 laws of thermodynamics associated with entropy.
- Energy can neither be created nor destroyed, it can only change its location and form.
- Through naturally occurring processes, the energy in a system will always move over time to a less ordered, less productive state, one that allows it to do less work. (aka, Friday night)
A prime example of these 2 laws in action is when you take an ice cube from the freezer. Over a very short amount of time, it will begin to melt from its organised form into its less productive state water, depending on how long you leave it alone. It turns into water vapour, or you could just say its entropy increases as time goes on.
How does it affect us?
We all put energy into keeping ourselves clean, we groom ourselves, we choose fantastic outfits, only to get dirty, and repeat all actions again the next day. We clean our house only for mess to accumulate slowly but surely over time. We repeat the action again and again, only through expending more & more energy to fix it.
We all work hard to have & maintain structure in our lives. This structure can be anything we think, with the caveat that we have to put effort (energy) into maintaining it from our bodies, our mental health, our house, our relationships. Or to quote the book, “any order we create however carefully can, be reversed over time.” Cleaning our homes isn’t a pain, because we have to stack and organise things, dust cabinets and move furniture. It’s a pain because you are fighting against the tide of the universe, because everything wants to be in a state of disarray. Tell that to the next person who demands things of you. 🙂
Reading that book made everything so much clearer in my head. I used to get annoyed at the mess that would pile up around my house, especially during the COVID lockdown, as the mess made from myself or family members seemed to lie until I finally got so fed up with it that I’d put work into correcting it, only to repeat the cycle again. Now I just think about how things tend toward disorder, and I’m not nearly as cranky about things, I just blame entropy and the universe.
What can we do?
Lowering your standards of what is achievable, you weren’t born perfect, no one or thing is perfect. You can’t write a novel in a week, you won’t run a marathon after 3 weeks of training. You have to start small and be realistic about what’s manageable, for instance writing a page or half a page, or just making small notes for ideas, then fleshing those out, or over a month going for a walk, then a power walk, then a short sprint, then a short run, etc… building from the ground up.
It reminds me and maybe relates to the speech by Admiral William H. McRaven, “If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed.” Because at least if you had a bad day, you come home to a bed that was made by you. It will encourage you that tomorrow will be better. Or the interview of Jordan Peterson, where he talks about “cleaning your room before protesting to change the world”.
In this blog post, it talks deeply about entropy. In fact, I will take an idea from the post for the title and call it a tax on nature itself, how if we didn’t have, the world would have no sense of urgency or need for innovation, and how being ignorant of entropy can lead to mistakes and failures. I relate this to work if you’re part of a team that has to work together to accomplish things. This is where entropy kicks in. If there is a breakdown in communication, it hurts your teams output and makes things more chaotic. Some may even say disorderly… we spend energy synergising to accomplish tasks.
So now when things go wrong and everything turns into a giant mess. I just blame entropy and nothing else… 😉 What else is there to say?
in closing
i don’t know if there is a way i could do justice for these concepts, justice. But I hope I carried this message across somewhat. i will probably revisit this in the future, as I learn more and can incorporate those thoughts into something tangible. I’m doing a lot at the moment, and i just wanted to get this out of my brain and onto a page/s.
Also,
- Please check out Camilla Pang’s interview with Sean Carroll on the Mindscape podcast.
- Entropy: Why Life Always Seems to Get More Complicated by James Clear
- Entropy: The Hidden Force That Complicates Life by Farnam Street
The Long Road Ahead 
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