# Entropy
Entropy permeates our every endeavor and has a natural tendency to **always increases over time**.
There are more ways that things can go wrong than right. There are many disordered states and few ordered ones. [[Murphy's Law]]
> Entropy is a measure of disorder. And there are always far more disorderly variations than orderly ones
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### The second law of thermodynamics
> Disorder in the universe always increases, as it increases energy is transformed into less useful forms. Thus, the efficiency of any process will always be less than 100%
- In the long run, nothing escapes the Second Law of Thermodynamics. *The pull of entropy is relentless. Everything decays. Disorder always increases.*
### Without effort, life tends to lose order
Life has a tendency to cause trouble, lose structure & make things difficult if forgotten about / not tended to well:
- Sand castles get washed away.
- Weeds overtake gardens.
- Ancient ruins crumble.
- Cars begin to rust.
- People gradually age.
Problems arise naturally, things get more complicated, less organized & gradually decline into disorder other than remaining simple & structured.
`` Solutions always require attention, energy & effort.``
### Why Art & Beauty are so aesthetically pleasing
- Artists create a form of order & symmetry that, odds are, the universe might never generate on it's own
- It's so rare in the grand scheme of things - the no. of combinations that are beautiful from all the combinations out there are just a handful
- Asymmetry is more likely than symmetry
### Why Optimal Lives are designed not discovered
- Each of us have an unique combination of talents, skills & interests specific to us.
- Society is not designed with your specific attributes in mind
- Evolutionary biologists call "fish out of water" situations - mismatch conditions
- in these conditions it is difficult to be useful, to win, to succeed
- You have to create those conditions & design your life to get there, it's not going to just come to you - Entropy makes sure it doesn't or is highly highly unlikely to
### Take Aways
- the odds for a system to find order w/o energy expenditure are overwhelmingly low
- usually one possible state / combination that represents order / the right answer
- infinite states / combinations that represent disorder / wrong answers
- you have to expend energy to create stability, structure and simplicity
- to counteract the natural tendency of entropy
- we cannot reverse entropy, but in the short term - we can create pockets of order.
- If results are not coming, move on. It is not bad to move on from things faster.
> “The ultimate purpose of life, mind, and human striving: to deploy energy and information to fight back the tide of entropy and carve out refuges of beneficial order.” —Steven Pinker
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Links: [[Laws of Thermodynamics]] | [[First Principles and Mental Models MoC]]
#firstprinciple #concept