Once there was an old man selling balloons at a fair. He released some of the balloons in the air when his business was not generating enough revenue. The balloons of different colors in the sky looked amazing to the children. Hence, they bought it from him. The old man used the same trick at every fair. In one of the fairs, a cute boy came towards him and asked, "Uncle, give me the red balloon." Out of curiosity, the old man replied, "Why do you choose the red balloon out of all these colors?" "The red balloon is higher than all the balloons released by you in the sky," responded the boy. The old man started laughing. Why are you laughing? asked the boy in confusion. My dear boy, it's not the color of the balloon but what is inside it that propels it to rise higher up in the sky.
The crux of the story is outside appearances are deceptive. It's what is inside the person that makes him beautiful. One must be wise to differentiate between inner beauty and outer beauty. Outer beauty is very attractive to the eyes but inner beauty captivates the heart. Outer beauty fades with time but inner beauty is eternal.
Naturally, a question arises in your mind why do some faces are beautiful than others?
The domain of thermodynamics will be helpful in finding the answer to this question. Yeah, I have heard your inner voice. Don't worry, I will not haunt you with complex mathematical equations. Let's start the journey of understanding the fundamentals of thermodynamics. It is the study of the set of laws that governs how the world works. It describes the change in energy within the system and the amount of useful work done by the system on its surrounding. It explains the degree of disorder present in any system, how the energy changes from one form to another, and the direction in which the heat will flow. All the systems present in the universe are moving towards disorder.
The four laws that set the foundation of thermodynamics are:
First Law of Thermodynamics: Energy cannot be created or destroyed. It can only be converted from one form to another. An example is the conversion of light into heat. This is also known as the law of conservation of energy. Heat and Work are the two types of energy exchanges. Heat is the energy exchanged through thermal interaction and work is the energy exchange other than heat. All the work can be converted into heat but all the heat can't be converted into work.
Second Law of Thermodynamics: The entropy of an isolated system increases with the passage of time. An isolated system is one that spontaneously moves towards disorder. One has to expend some energy to create order out of disorder.
Third Law of Thermodynamics: When the temperature reaches absolute zero the entropy of any system attains a constant value.
Zeroth Law of Thermodynamics: When two systems(A and B) are in thermal equilibrium with the third system(C), then the two systems(A and B) are also in thermal equilibrium with each other.
Learning is of no use unless one applies it in day-to-day life. The field of thermodynamics has many metaphorical applications. It's time to see its magic.
On Choosing a Spouse: Suppose you went to a beach and built a beautiful castle on the sand. You return to the same place after two days. Will you find the castle intact at that place? Absolutely not. Why so? The magic of entropy is at work. The waves of the ocean and the wind have destroyed it. The oceanic waves and wind can arrange the particles of sand in an infinite number of ways. The beautiful castle is one of the arrangements of those infinite ways. Is it possible for the sand particles to arrange themselves on their own due to the wind and oceanic waves to build a beautiful castle? The probability is infinitesimally low.
Why are some faces more beautiful than others? They are beautiful due to the symmetrical arrangement of the organs like eyes, ears, nose, chin, eyebrows, etc. There are an infinite number of combinations that makes the face or body structure asymmetrical. Out of these, only a few are in perfect alignment with each other.
Appearances are deceptive. Beauty is only skin deep. Don't get influenced by it. A beautiful face has nothing to do with the qualities of a person. Be more interested in inner beauty like kindness, humility, respect, and unconditional love while choosing a soulmate for yourself. If you will found beauty with brain then you will enjoy the best of both worlds. According to Charlie Munger, to become successful in life one has to avoid early death and a bad marriage.
Happy Marriages: Children are known as entropy machines. Everything is arranged properly in a clean room. There are rules for each entity like a drawer for socks, a hanger for shirts and pants, a locker for jewelry, etc. Many children don't follow the rules and throw their entities at random places which makes the room messier. An effort is needed to keep everything in order. Human beings always try to reduce their efforts which paves the way for the second law of thermodynamics. There are many possible combinations that make the room messier. Out of them, only a few are in order.
Similarly, all happy marriages are alike and unhappy marriages are unhappy in their own ways. Crazy in-laws, financial stress, infidelity, etc. are the reasons behind unhappy marriages. A small amount of success is needed in all the major areas to run the relationships smoothly. Happy marriages follow a definite structure. Therefore, all happy marriages are alike. There are many ways to demolish that structure. Hence, unhappy marriages are unhappy in their own ways. A continuous investment of energy is required to maintain a clean room. Likewise, continuous investment of energy is required to thwart the pull of entropy to maintain a healthy relationship.
Just as the constant increase of entropy is the basic law of the universe, so it is the basic law of life to be ever more highly structured and to struggle against entropy. Václav Havel
The success of any individual is directly proportional to the number of happy relations one has with others. Cooperation drives civilization and fosters growth. The fundamentals of thermodynamics provide a unique perspective on relationships. A successful relationship demands a continuous investment of energy. The natural question arises,
Is there any limit to the number of relationships one can maintain with others?
Robin Dunbar an evolutionary anthropologist gives an answer to this question. According to his research, the number of successful relations one has with others is directly proportional to the size of the neo-cortex present in the brain. The number of stable relations one has with others is one hundred and fifty. One hundred and fifty is also known as the Dunbar number. When the number exceeds one hundred and fifty then the brain is overloaded with information. It becomes difficult for the brain to process the information. Choose those one hundred and fifty people wisely. Foster relationships with those people who are happy to see you succeed and nudge you to become the best version of yourself.
The idea behind Border Walls: When a hot object is exposed to a cold object, heat will flow from the hot object to the cold object. Eventually, both of them reach a thermal equilibrium state. In other words, they are at the same temperature. Insulators are used to slow down the cooling process. Thermos is an insulator designed to slow down the cooling of hot coffee. Any barrier will only slow down the process but cannot prevent it altogether.
What if instead of two objects but two societies of different values are exposed to each other?
They too will reach the equilibrium known as social or cultural equilibrium. Borders and walls act as an insulator to prevent the two societies of different cultures from mingling with each other. The Romans built the Hadrian wall from coast to coast in North England to prevent their society from mixing with the hostile tribe living on the other side of the wall. Still, Romans moved to the other side and built relations with them. The borders can't prevent social equilibrium but only slows down it. An entropy moves the system toward equilibrium. Constructing a hundred percent effective barriers is a very resource-intensive task.
The Chinese people built The Great Wall of China to prevent their culture from outside influences. The philosophy of the Chinese people is to define, enclose, and exclude. Their intention is to maintain their cultural superiority. Despite all this, other cultures still influenced them. It is impossible for two societies having different cultures from intermixing with each other.
After the second world war, the Berlin wall separates East Germany from West Germany. The construction of the Hadrian wall and the Great Wall of China is to protect the Romans from hostile tribes and to maintain Chinese cultural superiority respectively. The Berlin wall was not only built to restrict the movement of people but also to prevent the sharing of ideas. It acted like a psychological barrier because East German ideology is inclined towards communism and behavior-shaping propaganda. It is hard to change the behavior of people if the ideas of the outer world influence them.
After the second world war, Berlin was occupied by America, Russia, Britain, and France. Until 1961, it worked as a single city. The people who didn't like the East German ideology escaped to West Berlin and from there to West Germany. Until 1961, around two and a half million population fled to West Germany. Most of them were skilled workers. The country was losing its cream of educated professionals. Therefore, they built a Berlin wall with multiple layers of deterrents. Any passage that connected East Germany from West Germany was sealed off. Still, people fled to West Germany albeit at a higher cost.
It is impossible to prevent the flow of ideas as well as people. In 1989, the Berlin wall was demolished by the same people who built them. The Berlin wall undermines the value of communism that East Germans were trying to preach. The Hadrian wall, The Great Wall of China, and The Berlin wall were describing the relentless pull of entropy on cultures, ideas, and people. No barrier was hundred percent effective and maintaining any barriers needs a continuous investment of energy.
Personal Growth: Chaotic systems like Weather, Economy, etc surround human beings. Chaotic Systems are those systems in which it is impossible to predict the outcome of an event in any given situation. One can roughly guess the outcome of a situation. It is impossible to predict how the company will fare over time or the economy of any country. Mathematician Edward Lorenz is famous for studying chaotic systems, pioneering a branch of mathematics known as Chaos theory. He introduced the metaphor of the butterfly effect to explain the chaotic systems.
According to the butterfly effect, a butterfly flapping its wings in one area sends air particles in a slightly different direction than they would have otherwise traveled which then amplified over time will produce the tornado in another area. The core idea behind the butterfly effect is that small changes in initial conditions will produce an outsize outcome later in life. The magic of the compounding effect is also in accordance with the chaotic systems.
Life is also a chaotic system. No one knows what will happen in the future. Nobody wants to graduate from college during the economic downturn or expects to lose his spouse at an early age. Planning ahead of time is the only factor that is within our control. The ability to adapt to changing conditions is crucial for success in life. One must know the skills to turn lemons into lemonade. Everybody has some butterfly moments in his life. What if you had taken the mechanical branch instead of the computer science branch? What if you hadn't gone to the event where you met with your spouse?
The antidote to the chaotic systems is to increase your luck surface area. Surface area is defined as how much area the surface of an object covers. An increase in the amount of personal entropy increases the luck surface area. Expose yourself to different situations to think multi-dimensionally. Meet people from different domains to understand their perspectives on life. Travel to foreign countries to understand their culture and traditions.
Rigidity comes through too much order. One won't be able to adapt to changing conditions. Too much disorder hampers productivity. Sometimes it is okay to say yes to some activities to increase personal entropy. Strike out a balance between order and disorder to gain optimal results. According to me, the equation to life is:
Personal Growth = X(Order) + 1-X(Disorder).
The value of X lies between zero and one. When X is 1, life becomes rigid. When X is zero, life is in complete disorder. Change the value of X according to the situation.
The only things that evolve by themselves in an organization are disorder, friction, and malperformance. Peter Drucker
Mismatch Conditions: People are born with specific strengths and talents. It is very unlikely that the ambiance in which they are born is also in accordance with their strengths. Evolutionary biologists call them mismatch conditions. There are an infinite number of capabilities. Out of them, only a few are in accordance with a specific culture. An example of entropy. It is true that great people like Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Warren Buffet, etc. are born at the right time. The reason behind their success is that they explicitly made effort to fight the pull of entropy to cultivate strengths that match their culture.
Habits: Heat transfers from the hot object to the cold object. If the goal is to share the energy between two objects then expose them to each other. On the other hand, if the goal is to prevent the sharing of energy then create a barrier between them. What if instead of objects people having different habits are exposed to each other? Pay close attention to the people with whom you are hanging out and choose them wisely. Hang out with those people whose normal behavior matches your desired behavior. Suppose you want to increase your fitness. Hang out with those who are fitness freaks and stop going with people who are eating unhealthy.
Time: Time is the most precious resource. If left unmanaged(entropy), one will not go far in life. Allocate your time to those activities that will move you closer to your goals. Use the Eisenhower decision matrix to allocate your time effectively. Similarly, if one is not mindful of money and nutrition then the pull of entropy will make him financially and nutritionally unhealthy.
Messy arrangements far outweigh orderly ones. Brian Greene
The sacredness of Art and Life: Take the pieces of a puzzle and dump them on a table. It is very unlikely that the puzzle will get solved. There are many ways to arrange the puzzle out of which only one combination will solve it. Similarly, the human body is made up of a large number of atoms. The chances are infinitesimally small that the atoms are arranged on their own to create an orderly structure of the body that we call life. Everything is moving toward disorder. The orderly arrangement and synchronization in which the human body works make us look at life in a sacred way.
An artist creates art that cannot happen randomly on its own. An artist expends a considerable amount of energy to create order out of the disorder. Next time when you look at any piece of art, treat it like a sacred object. Murphy's law is a common adage people toss around in conversations. Murphy's law states that if anything can go wrong then it will. The underlying idea behind murphy's law is entropy. There are an infinite number of possibilities by which a thing can go wrong. Out of them, only a few will work.
Things are moving towards disorder. The total disorder is also incompatible with life. When everything is at rest then life ceases to exist altogether. The total disorder leads to the end state of the universe as a homogeneous gas evenly distributed everywhere known as the heat death of the universe.
Conclusion: Thermodynamics is a ubiquitous force that permeates every aspect of our life. The growth of weeds in a garden, the aging of people, rust on iron, messier rooms, failure of banks, relationships, and organizations are examples of entropy. Problems arise on their own. It's not because of black magic or some cosmic force conspiring against us. There are so many ways for things that can go wrong. The purpose of our life is to exert energy to create an order that solves those problems.
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Photo by Hannah Busing on Unsplash
The level of clarity you have towards life and the efforts that you make to share it with other is always inspirational. ✨🙏🙌
Beautiful...thank you for enlightening us always with wise words ...so proud of you !!!😊👏👍