Entropy
Managing and balancing the right “systems” and their entropy is a constant struggle
I relearned entropy!
Entropy is a measure of a system’s order. When entropy is high, the system is chaotic which also results in less energy available and lower entropy implies there is order, but a greater potential of energy.
For example, hydrocarbons have lower entropy with high energy as a liquid (e.g. gasoline) compared to as a gas where the molecules have more disorder and less energy.
Thinking about entropy, I’m determining what “systems” give me joy and require low entropy. Our lives are miraculous systems, but the universe prefers high entropy aka chaos.
The problem with maintaining low entropy is the time investment required. The time I need to clean up my kitchen is the investment to move my kitchen’s entropy from high (messy) to low (order). I want to “play” and experience joy so putting order back into the system increases the “energy” to cook again.
Entropy also applies to our friendships. Some friends are high entropy, some are not. We all have those low maintenance high joy friends, but we also have those friends who are just a pain and suck the daylight out of you, which in turns affects your own entropy day to day.
Managing and balancing the right “systems” and their entropy is a constant struggle; this is what the Buddhists call “the middle way”. Although entropy feels less like a life philosophy and more so a stupid petulant habit of the universe that we are subservient to.
Anyways… back to cleaning.
Word count: 249
Twitter: @bhavprajapati
