Guy Reams (00:00.546)
This is day 41, the law of entropy. So I thought I would talk about the law of entropy today. This is a principle that comes up from time to time. And it really helps me understand why ignoring issues in my life is the worst thing that I can do. So I have this tendency to let little issues accumulate and then
at some point in time, those little issues become very large issues and they are overwhelming to me. And so I don't know if you've seen this pattern, but I have where over time, the little issues will accumulate. will ignore them and ignore them and ignore them. And then eventually they get the chaos in the system gets so bad that it becomes overwhelming. This
phenomenon has led to in my past failures in my systems or in commitments or things I'm trying to accomplish. So I learned over a long period of time that this concept of entropy is one of the big causes for my failures. And I don't want to admit that to myself because these are just little issues, right?
These little issues should not get in my way. But it's this law of entropy that is always the root cause behind any massive failure that I have.
First off, the law of entropy is a principle from thermodynamics. It explains how systems naturally evolve towards disorder and randomness over time. It's tied to the second law of thermodynamics, which is basically any energy transfer or transformation, the total entropy of a closed system will either increase or remain constant, but will never decrease.
Guy Reams (02:06.359)
So let's talk a little bit about what this means and what its implications are in our lives. So entropy is the measure of the amount of disorder, randomness, or uncertainty in a system. So any system, whether it be human created or biological or machine system, will have a certain amount of disorder or randomness or uncertainty occurring in it.
When you have high entropy, means there's more disorder. And when you have low entropy, it indicates that there's an ordered state.
It's important to understand that in this thing, there's always an energy dissipation that occurs. As energy is used or transferred, some of it becomes unavailable for work, often dissipating as heat. And this therefore increases entropy. This is really true in biological systems. So this is an important concept that took me a long time to really get my head around. As I'm committing energy towards something,
As I'm putting effort towards a particular thing, some of that effort or energy becomes unavailable and gets dissipated. And therefore, entropy starts to creep in to my systems. Just because I create a perfect system doesn't mean it will always stay that
So in simple terms, disorder will always increase over time. So you'll move from a state of low entropy to a state of high entropy, unless you apply energy to maintain or reduce this disorder. So if you create a system in your life or you create a process,
Guy Reams (04:08.725)
it'll start out in a state of low entropy. But if you just keep that process the way it is and you apply no additional energy to it, over time it will move towards a state of high entropy. So in order to reverse that trend, you have to apply energy towards it constantly in order to prevent that from happening. So
There are certain things that will automatically increase entropy, and this is true in any thermodynamic system. For example, burning fuel or mixing in different substances in a closed system will cause more entropy to occur. So no process in any thermodynamic system is 100 % efficient. Energy transformation always results in some of the energy becoming unusable.
contributing to entropy in the system, right? So we can make it very simple. Like when you were in early chemistry or physics class, you might have done a lot of experiments with melting ice. So a solid block of ice, like ordered molecules, will melt into water, disordered molecules. So structured molecules in a block of ice will melt into disordered molecules, which is loose water. This transition
from structure to non-structure will increase entropy. Most people drink coffee. I don't. But most people drink coffee. Hot coffee loses heat to its surrounding environment. So if you leave a hot cup of coffee on a table, the heat will dissipate away from the hot cup of coffee. And what will happen is that cup of coffee will move towards a thermal equilibrium.
a higher entropy state. A bio like your life, your human body, over time, your body will naturally degrade unless energy is invested in maintenance and repairing of that body. So healing, eating, exercising. Once an organism dies, decomposition occurs where structures break down into simpler components, cobrating and empathy.
Guy Reams (06:30.953)
A business, if you have a business, for example, if you don't maintain that business or add energy to maintain or keep the structures alive, it will gradually erode over time. If you've ever garden, you can't just plant your garden and walk away from it. The garden will decay and become more disordered over time. So.
What's interesting is I've discovered this entropy law in everything, even when it comes to communication. Like for example, I may think I have a great connection with somebody and we just have this great rapport and I take it for granted that I have a great rapport with that person. But if I don't add energy to that communication with that person, I can't take it for granted that rapport will be there automatically when I need it.
It will, there will be, it will, may have been in a low state of entropy when I first created the relationship, but over time it'll get to a higher state of entropy.
Same thing happens with team communication. If you have a body of people that you're working with, several humans that are all working, you may get it to the point where they're organized and they're structured, and they may start to communicate very well together. But if you do not pay attention to it over time, they will lead to more chaos, and they will lead to greater inefficiency.
You must apply energy and invest energy in order to reduce entropy or another way to state that would be to increase order. So I think if you were to draw a map out of the law of thermodynamics, you would see as the main ingredient, energy. So for example, if I were to walk into my office and it's a complete disorganized mess,
Guy Reams (08:38.765)
The only way that disorganized mass is going to get to a state of organization or lower entropy, it is going to require energy, efforts.
So this is compounded by the fact that machines or processes or systems are never perfect. Some dissipate energy, some produce errors. They're just imperfect in general. So oftentimes you think you have got a great perfect system, but it may be diffusing energy faster than you realize.
This can happen in a lot of different dynamics. Going back to that team example, you could have one bad apple in the team that's causing more entropy than what is normal. So if you're not careful, that one person can cause a lot of problems. So this is why the universe, if you think about it, this is a rule that's affecting everything, like the entire universe. The universe itself is probably moving towards a state of
of dissipation of energy, the equilibrium of energy, where all human life is based on the idea that there's sun, the solar cycle of our sun. Over time, we know the sun will eventually dissipate all of its energy. So just think about this on an entire universal scale. Everything is moving towards a higher entropy. So eventually,
Everything will become universally distributed and no more work can be done because there will be no more energy left so That seems kind of fatalistic But it's important to understand that all systems move towards this path No matter what you create No matter if it's a physical thing or a sociology thing Everything is going to move towards a state of entropy
Guy Reams (10:50.317)
So what is the solution?
The solution is simply to put more energy towards that in order to prevent it from happening. So getting back to one of the things that I talked when I started this conversation, I have a tendency to ignore these little things in my life. So for example, I'll create a system for paying my bills and that system will work out great when I first create it. It'll have a low state of entropy. And then over time,
things will change. And as a consequence, if I don't pay attention to it, little anomalies will pop up and eventually they will become overwhelming and they will destroy the entire system. And so this happens all the time. I have a bill pay mechanism that I do once a month. And then every once in some little thing will pop up that I wasn't prepared for or didn't have a path for. And that little thing will become a nuisance to me.
but I'll ignore it and I'll ignore it and I'll ignore it. Eventually, these things that I'm ignoring suck energy away and end up causing a higher state of entropy. And so my bill system falls apart and therefore it becomes a problem that I have to deal with one day. So in my opinion, these are the key takeaways.
Entropy is a universal tendency for all systems and all people and all human things to move towards disorder. To maintain or create order, you must apply energy towards these systems. So you cannot create systems in your life and not apply energy towards maintaining them. Entropy will always increase, even in a closed system.
Guy Reams (12:45.479)
everything will lead towards irreversibility and inefficiency. So therefore, we must understand that you cannot go through life without dealing with the small things. So long story short, and this was a long way to get to this very simple concept, you just cannot ignore the little things. As soon as a little thing pops up, you must immediately take care of it.
Now, I think we all know this, that if you leave the little things alone, they will eventually become big things. We all know this. But it's the law of entropy which is the reason why. And so this just helps me understand this. So when a little thing pops up in my life, and if it comes into my head and I think about it, I'm like, that's a problem. Old guy would ignore that. And I would ignore it for a long period of time.
until eventually it would erode my system, then I would have to deal with it. The new guy over this last few years is when that little problem, as soon as it enters into my head, I now realize that that is a sign that I'm having a changing state of entropy into whatever system I created. And I must deal with the little issue now or otherwise I will move towards chaos.
I don't know if this made any sense at all, but anyway, deal with the little things fast. Thank you.