When in doubt, do nothing
I had a relatively major epiphany today (other than once again realizing that working the midnight shift is only as good as the drugs used to keep me awake). Maybe you share this trait, but I've always questioned my motivation for doing just about anything in life. I'm talking about everything from what to study in college to how much toothpaste to put on my toothbrush. As you can imagine, it's enough to drive a man insane though having an overactive brain does have its benefits, most of which I'm still trying to ascertain.
I bring this up because I feel that I differ from the general population when it comes to this and it's especially pronounced during this time of year. While others are out cramming the shopping malls and outlets force feeding their car trunks with generally superficial expressions of love, I do what I can to stay out of their way. All philosophy aside, I become a hermit this time of year mostly out of self-preservation. I've inherited my father's inability to be crammed in a mall surrounded by people for any period of time longer than what it takes to buy one thing and get the hell out of there. Granted, this usually results in more trips to the mall because I can only buy one thing at a time so I'll let you revel in the irony. In the end, however, I have my peace of mind and the will to continue living so I can't complain.
My point is that this time of the year prompts everyone to feel a need to come up with incredible gift ideas for everyone they've known since pre-school and expose themselves to the respective stress. I say that we should focus less on the holiday season and extend our gift giving throughout the entire year, giving when the mood and inspiration strikes us. But gift giving is only an example. Truth is, I tend to rely on this philosophy in most aspects of my life. My epiphany stems from the fact that I was finally able to put this in some sort of context. It's one thing to live a certain way but to actually define and make sense of it is an entirely novel experience.
Before I go on it's critical that I introduce one particular term to this discussion: entropy. As anyone who has taken a high school science course (and remembers more than throwing frog parts across the room) can tell you, entropy is (in its simplist form) the measure of disorder within a system. Nature, being the incredibly intelligent force that it is, prefers a system with high entropy (high disorder) much like the malls on Christmas Eve. Accordingly, a system can go from a state of high entropy to low entropy, but not vice-versa without the addition of energy. For example, in nature, a building cannot build itself without the aid of man, though, given enough time, it will come down through natural forces. Nature prefers that building to be a pile of rubbish because that is a less energetic state. If that wasn't clear enough, think of your body. Do you think it prefers to be standing or lying down? Lying down, of course, because that requires less effort.
Let me bring this back to my original discussion. I realized that I govern my life by a rule of high entropy. That's not to say that I aim for disorder. I actually abhor disorder, a trait that probably contributed signficantly to my foray into engineering. What I do tend to lean towards, however, are low energetic states and a more naturalistic lifestyle. Clear yet? No, I think not. Simply put, I try not to fill my life with those things that aren't necessary. The more things I have, the thinner I spread myself out with activities, the further from my most natural state I become. Don't confuse this with sheer laziness. In fact, I'm quite an active person, whether it be physically, socially, or culturally. Ok, maybe not so heavy on the social part, but I do what I can.
Maybe by now you can see why this was such an epiphany. I have no doubt that you're reading this, scratching your head, and realizing what sleep deprivation does to the mind. In the grand scheme of things, assigning the word 'entropy' to my thought process means very little though it now gives me a way to describe it to others. Everything I do is based on the underline assupmtion that I'm looking for the simplist way of completing the objective or performing the act and rejecting any contemplation of going for 'bigger and better' which, usually, is neither. Keep it simple. Low energy states. Entropy. Perhaps it's not the clearest metaphor. Perhaps it makes sense to no one other than myself and a handful of philosophical physicists. But it's enough to give me a little more awareness of my thought processes.
Now I think I'll go lie down.
Random image of the day:
I bring this up because I feel that I differ from the general population when it comes to this and it's especially pronounced during this time of year. While others are out cramming the shopping malls and outlets force feeding their car trunks with generally superficial expressions of love, I do what I can to stay out of their way. All philosophy aside, I become a hermit this time of year mostly out of self-preservation. I've inherited my father's inability to be crammed in a mall surrounded by people for any period of time longer than what it takes to buy one thing and get the hell out of there. Granted, this usually results in more trips to the mall because I can only buy one thing at a time so I'll let you revel in the irony. In the end, however, I have my peace of mind and the will to continue living so I can't complain.
My point is that this time of the year prompts everyone to feel a need to come up with incredible gift ideas for everyone they've known since pre-school and expose themselves to the respective stress. I say that we should focus less on the holiday season and extend our gift giving throughout the entire year, giving when the mood and inspiration strikes us. But gift giving is only an example. Truth is, I tend to rely on this philosophy in most aspects of my life. My epiphany stems from the fact that I was finally able to put this in some sort of context. It's one thing to live a certain way but to actually define and make sense of it is an entirely novel experience.
Before I go on it's critical that I introduce one particular term to this discussion: entropy. As anyone who has taken a high school science course (and remembers more than throwing frog parts across the room) can tell you, entropy is (in its simplist form) the measure of disorder within a system. Nature, being the incredibly intelligent force that it is, prefers a system with high entropy (high disorder) much like the malls on Christmas Eve. Accordingly, a system can go from a state of high entropy to low entropy, but not vice-versa without the addition of energy. For example, in nature, a building cannot build itself without the aid of man, though, given enough time, it will come down through natural forces. Nature prefers that building to be a pile of rubbish because that is a less energetic state. If that wasn't clear enough, think of your body. Do you think it prefers to be standing or lying down? Lying down, of course, because that requires less effort.
Let me bring this back to my original discussion. I realized that I govern my life by a rule of high entropy. That's not to say that I aim for disorder. I actually abhor disorder, a trait that probably contributed signficantly to my foray into engineering. What I do tend to lean towards, however, are low energetic states and a more naturalistic lifestyle. Clear yet? No, I think not. Simply put, I try not to fill my life with those things that aren't necessary. The more things I have, the thinner I spread myself out with activities, the further from my most natural state I become. Don't confuse this with sheer laziness. In fact, I'm quite an active person, whether it be physically, socially, or culturally. Ok, maybe not so heavy on the social part, but I do what I can.
Maybe by now you can see why this was such an epiphany. I have no doubt that you're reading this, scratching your head, and realizing what sleep deprivation does to the mind. In the grand scheme of things, assigning the word 'entropy' to my thought process means very little though it now gives me a way to describe it to others. Everything I do is based on the underline assupmtion that I'm looking for the simplist way of completing the objective or performing the act and rejecting any contemplation of going for 'bigger and better' which, usually, is neither. Keep it simple. Low energy states. Entropy. Perhaps it's not the clearest metaphor. Perhaps it makes sense to no one other than myself and a handful of philosophical physicists. But it's enough to give me a little more awareness of my thought processes.
Now I think I'll go lie down.
Random image of the day:
posted by The Rube at Tuesday, December 20, 2005
2 Comments:
Amen! I don't go for big crazy crowds anyways...but the idea of trying to go anywhere this time of year (even from one end of Bay Area to the other) is entirely too scary! People are just too ridiculous, and too rude.
Too bad more people can't understand the concept that simple is good. I never would have put in terms of entropy (you're such a nerd!), but you're definitely on to something there.
Entropy? Hmmmm.....
"In this house, we obey the laws of thermodynamics!"
Put that in your pipe and smoke it..... and name that quote, Rubinator.
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