Day 96 – Entropy

In a conversation with a client, post the workshop last week, we discussed next steps. One of the things he said was we must soon have a refresher or catch-up. Because after the initial high no matter how amazing the experience, people tend to forget. Yes it is true.

That is the one thing definitely I have seen in the last 20 years. I have tried many ways to “solve” this problem.

As I sat mulling over this, after doing the rangoli, I realised the same thing was going to happen to this design. Soon. This is what happened to other things, knowledge, bodies, relationships, hair everything.

No matter how amazing, beautiful solid the “Initial” condition or state, very soon it would not be the same. The Problem, we think it will. Anita my maid, was laughing when she said, after she has cleaned up the house she wishes it remains exactly like that. She said she used to blame me for it not being so, But last couple of days, when I was not at home, she noticed that same thing happened. Nobody touched anything and yet things got dusty and dirty. how come Tai , she asked.

I am so amazed and glad she notices such things and asks questions. But I did not know how to explain “Entropy” to her.

I have been always fascinated by “Entropy”. Actually I have always felt “everything” in life can be explained by the four Laws of thermodynamics.

Before dismissing this as “too technical”. If we remember saying, “I don’t feel like doing this work, I have No Energy” – It is applicable. Using this lens to see everyday things, systems has been a huge help.

It fascinates me because these laws force one to think about two very important things. Systems-Boundary and Heat – Work. We are “never” not in a system. Our own body is a system with a boundary. So it really helps to understand.

Thermodynamics is the branch of physical science that deals with the relations between heat and other forms of energy

System and Surroundings

Everything that is not a part of the system constitutes its surroundings. The system and surroundings are separated by a boundary. Anything within my home is a system, outside the boundary of the door, is the surrounding.

The boundary must be clearly defined, so one can clearly say whether a given part of the world is in the system or in the surroundings. If matter is not able to pass across the boundary, then the system is said to be closed; otherwise, it is open.

This applies to teams, families, organizations, societies, ANY system. Therefore the Laws of thermodynamics also apply to any system

Ok so here are FOUR Laws.

The First Law of Thermodynamics : Law of Conservation of Energy, states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed; energy can only be transferred or changed from one form to another.This is pretty familiar. When your irritation with the traffic spills over to meeting in the office, it’s the first law at work. Just saying so we don’t have to be too hard on ourself.

The Second Law of Thermodynamics : The entropy of any isolated system always increases. Isolated systems spontaneously evolve towards thermal equilibrium. More simply put: the entropy of the universe (the ultimate isolated system) only increases. Isolated systems means when a “system” is not interacting with its surroundings in anyway.

Entropy or the chaos or disorder will and can only increase with time. It is an irreversible process. We will circle back to this in a bit.

The Third Law of Thermodynamics : The third law of thermodynamics states that the entropy of a system approaches a constant value as the temperature approaches absolute zero.This of course is the Ideal idle state. It is impossible for any process, no matter how idealised, to reduce the entropy of a system to its absolute-zero. Therefore NO system is ‘Perfect’.

A Fourth Law of Thermodynamics: Also known as Zeroth Law: Synergy Increases Free Energy While Decreasing Entropy

My favourite is the second law. That is where Entropy comes in.

Entropy Definition: Measure of dysfunction or disorder in a system. It is also a measure of the energy dispersal in the system. Simply put it is “heat” in a system that is not doing any work. So left to itself the system, “spontaneously” moves toward “disorder.

We have to just look around at Nature to see that Entropy is real. Everything in nature moves irreversibly. What happens to that fruit you kept out and forgot, is entropy. It is spontaneous, it is certain, it is irreversible. Anti-ageing is a marketing gimmick

So what is the point?? : The Key is to understand the onset of Entropy. So it can be delayed or the energy used creatively, at best.

The onset of Entropy is Thermal equilibrium.

Thermal Equilibrium: Heat is the flow of energy from a high temperature to a low temperature. When these temperatures balance out, heat stops flowing, then the system is said to be in thermal equilibrium. When there is no heat. Entropy, disorder, chaos, disintegration, BEGINS.

The term “Entropy” comes with its Greek prefix en-, meaning “within”, and the trop-meaning “change”.

So entropy basically means “change within” or “Transformation”.

This is why is need to KNOW it more.

When a hot cup of coffee is kept on a coaster, the heat will dissipate, that is how coffee become cold. Of course we know this..

But here is the catch, “Till the heat is moving, the coffee will not start to go bad.” In other words “Entropy” will only set in when heat has stopped.

Thermal equilibrium also implies that there’s no matter flowing into or out of the system.

I am sure we know of several relationships that are in Thermal Equilibrium. The heat has stopped. Years ago, I had a friend, We had our ups and downs. At one time the “heat” got too much, but we stopped communicating or even fighting. Slowly the heat, dissipated and we reached a thermal equilibrium. It mimicked “Peace” but it wasn’t. It was the “onset” of entropy. And Irreversible process if disintegration. We are no longer friends.

I feel passionately about this as we “see” the energy drop in systems. Remember the first laws is energy conservation. It means if the heat is missing in one system- it is getting used or spent somewhere else. This is where addictions to work substance etc come in.

It is energy that is NOT finding a system to do work in.

This is where it gets tricky. Several factors affect the amount of entropy in a system. If you increase temperature, you increase entropy. More energy put into a system excites the molecules and the amount of random activity. But if you don’t, it anyway moves toward equilibrium.

So entropy is a given. Our choice is will it happen Slowly or Quickly.

And more importantly what are the way to use entropy or delay it. I have found Four ways

First : Convert Heat to Work.

Heat and work are two different things. Heat is the transfer of thermal energy between systems, while work is the transfer of mechanical energy between two systems.

So excitement after a workshop ca be heat, but unless specifically designed to apply it won’t automatically convert to useful “work”.

When the heat is used fruitfully to do some “Work” heat is productive.

When I am upset I can feel a lot of heat. If I sit around, I may end up using the heat in wasteful ways, either take it out on someone or something or use it to burn the unnecessary things I may end up eating etc. So instead, I go for a walk or a run.

Never waste a good crisis.

I use the energy to get fitter. Or Sometimes, I just clean. The house, floors cupboards, etc, Either ways I try to put the Heat to work.

So in the client system, the “excitement” heat needs to be quickly be put to work, before it dissipates. Work here is solving some real life challenges they are facing day in and day out. Thats how the system keeps moving. And things are not lost and forgotten. Remembering for the sake of remembering is not exciting at all.

Second : Keep increasing the Temperature

Keep applying small amounts of temperatures, in random manner. Not predictable. So that the system is “awake”. We all know the story of the frog in a pot of boiling milk

It is the perfect example of Thermal equilibrium. Eventually the frog felt NO heat. And it died.

I know of some friends in relationship, and even me at times, slipping into this state. Where the heat is on, but we get “used to” and don’t do any work. And then it too late.

People leave teams or organizations even after “everything seemed OK”. But it wasn’t. We let ourselves be lulled into “familiar” even when it is actually painful. A few days ago I was talking to a friend and he was telling me, he and his family might be moving countries, just given what all is happening here. I understand. I have also had those thoughts.

Heretics, Rebels and Disrupters DO precisely this in any system. and hence they are absolutely necessary.

Maybe the reason, we keeping moving or expanding our “system”, is to keep feeling the heat. If we keep contracting our system, we accelerate entropy.

Third : Establish Boundaries

Entropy always spreads outwards. A campfire is an example of entropy. The solid wood burns and becomes ash, smoke and gases, all of which spread energy outwards more easily than the solid fuel.

Ice melting, salt or sugar dissolving, making popcorn and boiling water for tea are processes with increasing entropy in your kitchen.

Imagine popcorn in a pan without a lid. Yes it will be a mess sooner. In any system that starts to fail, its because some boundaries are either not set or violated. Role, Time and Task are a few.

Last year during the lockdown, the number of Family discords happened owing to Role and Time boundaries transgressed. This when NOT contained spilled into organizations. One of the issues I have seen is Attrition.

I know of people, myself included, who are not able to draw a boundary and end up getting a “spill over” of heat from other systems, or vice versa. And then the internal or external system tumbles into entropy quickly. Boundaries are Imperative to survival

Fourth : Openness and Feedback

All of Entropy fast forwards in a “Closed system”.  When the “System is allowed to interact and learn from it surroundings , entropy can be delayed.

“We know past, but cannot control it. We can control Future but cannot know it” – Claude Shannon

I have seen people and leaders and teams who are “Closed” to any form of feedback from their surroundings. They are in a CLOSED System.  And then it deteriorates real fast. People who are unwilling to be Open to feedback, are literally digging their own graves. And it starts to show on their health and the health of their teams

To say it differently, any system that is deteriorating fast, is not taking and integrating Feedback.

Same is true of our society. If we keep it tightly “Closed” not interacting with our environment we will slowly start to drown in our own heat. Which is probably what is happening.We need to really put the Zeroth Law to use Synergy decreases Entropy.

Even on the scale of our earth, we are not interacting and learning and adapting to our environment. The “HEAT” is increasing, literally. And we are sitting in it like the proverbial frog. We are not above the laws of thermodynamics. Nothing is. If we don’t synergise we Will perish. Sooner.

Perhaps we need to really tune in to the present and pay attention to the heat in our midst and put it to work.  Maybe we need to learn to listen to our own system our bodies and see its condition, and that should tell us about what our environment is doing or not doing for our own well being.  Perhaps we need to really pay attention to the correlation of “feedback” and the Health, of our own mind body spirt –  Individually and collectively.

Another way to think about Entropy is energy with no direction and hence can be used constructively. If we don’t see it like this we can and do, end up harming ourselves and others. In a world where nothing comes easy, Entropy does.

The tendency toward randomness and uncertainty is the Law, we can’t fight it. We need to understand it. I find this important to get, so that we realise the illusion of Control. And then perhaps we can dance with “uncertainty’ and not be tentative about it.

The Buddhist and Indian practice of make art with coloured sand, “rangoli” perhaps is to really know, on a daily basis this ephemeral nature of things and Entropy as an inevitable reality.

Maybe this can help was come out of our  “closed system” and live more fully and MOVE Forward.  This is my Prayer on the eve of Diwali for everyone today.

Maybe we need to wake up and smell the Coffee before it gets cold.