07/07/2018 Entropy: Why Life Always Seems to Get More Complicated

Entropy: Why Life Always Seems to

Get More Complicated
By James
James Clear    |    Mental
Clear Mental Models

Murphy's Law states, “Anything that can go wrong, will go

wrong.”

This pithy statement references the annoying tendency of

life to cause trouble and make things difficult. Problems
seem to arise naturally on their own, while solutions
always require our attention, energy, and effort. Life never
seems to just work itself out for us. If anything, our lives
become more complicated and gradually decline into
disorder rather than remaining simple and structured.

Why is that?

Murphy's Law is just a common adage that people toss

around in conversation, but it is related to one of the great
forces of our universe. This force is so fundamental to the
way our world works that it permeates nearly every
endeavor we pursue. It drives many of the problems we
face and leads to disarray. It is the one force that governs
everybody's life: Entropy.

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What is Entropy and Why Does It Matter?

What is entropy? Here's a simple way to think about it:

Imagine that you take a box of puzzle pieces and dump

them out on a table. In theory, it is possible for the pieces
to fall perfectly into place and create a completed puzzle
when you dump them out of the box. But in reality, that
never happens.

Why?

Quite simply, because the odds are overwhelmingly

against it. Every piece would have to fall in just the right
spot to create a completed puzzle. There is only one
possible state where every piece is in order, but there are a

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nearly infinite number of states where the pieces are in

disorder. Mathematically speaking, an orderly outcome is
incredibly unlikely to happen at random.

Similarly, if you build a sand castle on the beach and

return a few days later, it will no longer be there. There is
only one combination of sand particles that looks like your
sand castle. Meanwhile, there are a nearly infinite number
of combinations that don't look like it.

Again, in theory, it is possible for the wind and waves to

move the sand around and create the shape of your sand
castle. But in practice, it never happens. The odds are
astronomically higher that sand will be scattered into a
random clump.

These simple examples capture the essence of entropy.

Entropy is a measure of disorder. And there are always far
more disorderly variations than orderly ones.

Why Does Entropy Matter for Your Life?

Here's the crucial thing about entropy: it always increases
over time.

It is the natural tendency of things to lose order. Left to its

own devices, life will always become less structured. Sand
castles get washed away. Weeds overtake gardens. Ancient
ruins crumble. Cars begin to rust. People gradually age.
With enough time, even mountains erode and their precise
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edges become rounded. The inevitable trend is that things

become less organized.

This is known as the Second Law of Thermodynamics. It is

one of the foundational concepts of chemistry and it is one
of the fundamental laws of our universe. The Second Law
of Thermodynamics states that the entropy of a closed
system will never decrease.

“The law that entropy always increases holds, I

think, the supreme position among the laws of
Nature.” —Arthur Eddington

The great British scientist Arthur Eddington claimed, “The

law that entropy always increases holds, I think, the
supreme position among the laws of Nature. If someone
points out to you that your pet theory of the universe is in
disagreement with Maxwell's equations—then so much the
worse for Maxwell's equations. If it is found to be
contradicted by observation—well, these experimentalists
do bungle things sometimes. But if your theory is found to
be against the Second Law of Thermodynamics I can give
you no hope; there is nothing for it but to collapse in
deepest humiliation.”

In the long run, nothing escapes the Second Law of

Thermodynamics. The pull of entropy is relentless.
Everything decays. Disorder always increases.

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Without Effort, Life Tends to Lose Order

Before you get depressed, there is good news.

You can fight back against the pull of entropy. You can
solve a scattered puzzle. You can pull the weeds out of your
garden. You can clean a messy room. You can organize
individuals into a cohesive team.

But because the universe naturally slides toward disorder,

you have to expend energy to create stability, structure,
and simplicity. Successful relationships require care and
attention. Successful houses require cleaning and
maintenance. Successful teams require communication
and collaboration. Without effort, things will decay.

This insight—that disorder has a natural tendency to

increase over time and that we can counteract that
tendency by expending energy—reveals the core purpose
of life. We must exert effort to create useful types of order
that are resilient enough to withstand the unrelenting pull
of entropy.

“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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Maintaining organization in the face of chaos is not easy.

In the words of Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia,
“The hardest thing in the world is to simplify your life
because everything is pulling you to be more and more
complex.”

Entropy will always increase on its own. The only way to

make things orderly again is to add energy. Order requires
effort.

Entropy in Daily Life

Entropy helps explain many of the mysteries and
experiences of daily life.

For example:

Why Life is Remarkable

Consider the human body.

The collection of atoms that make up your body could be

arranged in a virtually infinite number of ways and nearly
all of them lead to no form of life whatsoever.
Mathematically speaking, the odds are overwhelmingly
against your very presence. You are a very unlikely
combination of atoms. And yet, here you are. It is truly
remarkable.

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In a universe where entropy rules the day, the presence of

life with such organization, structure, and stability is
stunning.

Why Art is Beautiful

Entropy offers a good explanation for why art and beauty

are so aesthetically pleasing. Artists create a form of order
and symmetry that, odds are, the universe would never
generate on its own. It is so rare in the grand scheme of
possibilities. The number of beautiful combinations is far
less than the number of total combinations. Similarly,
seeing a symmetrical face is rare and beautiful when there
are so many ways for a face to be asymmetrical.

Beauty is rare and unlikely in a universe of disorder. And

this gives us good reason to protect art. We should guard it
and treat it as something sacred.

Why Marriage is Difficult

One of the most famous opening lines in literature comes

from Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. He writes, “Happy
families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in
its own way.”

There are many ways a marriage can fail—financial stress,

parenting issues, crazy in-laws, conflicts in core values,
lack of trust, infidelity, and so on. A deficiency in any one
of these areas can wreck a family.

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To be happy, however, you need some degree of success in

each major area. Thus, all happy families are alike because
they all have a similar structure. Disorder can occur in
many ways, but order, in only a few.

Why Optimal Lives Are Designed Not Discovered

You have a combination of talents, skills, and interests that

are specific to you. But you also live in a larger society and
culture that were not designed with your specific abilities
in mind. Given what we know about entropy, what do you
think the odds are that the environment you happen to
grow up in is also the optimal environment for your
talents?

It is very unlikely that life is going to present you with a

situation that perfectly matches your strengths. Out of all
the possible scenarios you could encounter, it’s far more
likely that you’ll encounter one that does not cater to your
talents.

Evolutionary biologists use a term called “mismatch

conditions” to describe when an organism is not well-
suited for a condition it is facing. We have common
phrases for mismatch conditions: “like a fish out of water”
or “bring a knife to a gunfight.” Obviously, when you are in
a mismatch condition, it is more difficult to succeed, to be
useful, and to win.

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It is likely you'll face mismatch conditions in your life. At

the very least, life will not be optimal—maybe you didn't
grow up in the optimal culture for your interests, maybe
you were exposed to the wrong subject or sport, maybe you
were born at the wrong time in history. It is far more likely
that you are living in a mismatch condition than in a well-
matched one.

Knowing this, you must take it upon yourself to design

your ideal lifestyle.
lifestyle You have to turn a mismatch condition
into a well-matched one.
one Optimal lives are designed, not
discovered.

Murphy's Law Applied to the Universe

Finally, let's return to Murphy's Law: “Anything that can
go wrong, will go wrong.”

Entropy provides a good explanation for why Murphy’s

Law seems to pop up so frequently in life. There are more
ways things can go wrong than right. The difficulties of life
do not occur because the planets are misaligned or because
some cosmic force is conspiring against you. It is simply
entropy at work. As one scientist put it, “Entropy is sort of
like Murphy's Law applied to the entire universe.”

It is nobody's fault that life has problems. It is simply a law

of probability. There are many disordered states and few
ordered ones. Given the odds against us, what is

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