How do we affect others?

Gautama Buddha was staying in a village for a short duration of time. People from far-flung areas came to acquire wisdom from him. A rich businessman was a devotee of the Buddha who lived in the same village where Buddha was staying. He was grappling with a problem and hadn't met him for a very long time. He was reluctant to tell his problem to the Buddha. The cause of the reluctance was to admit his mistake in front of him. He tried everything and was unable to find the solution to the problem. Finally, one day he asked Buddha, "Oh! wise one please help me. I am in a terrible dilemma." Buddha replied softly, "My dear, What happen? Why are you looking so worried?" "I am a businessman. I am losing money while trading. My trade partners are using and taking advantage of me. They are winning at my expense.", answered the businessman. Buddha understood the problem and smiled at him. He told him to wait for at least three days before taking any big financial decision. Be patient and don't let your emotions overpower you. When you give a piece of bread to a dog, he won't eat it immediately. Dog smell it to make sure that it was safe and then eat it. The dog used the power of smell before making the decision. Similarly, use your wisdom before making any big decision in life. Never be in a hurry and don't act impulsively. Finally, Buddha looked into the eyes of the businessman and understood that the lesson becomes imprinted on his consciousness.

The story is full of wisdom and contains many insights. Patience is a virtue. The best way to inculcate patience is through fasting. Fasting kills cancerous cells and has many other health benefits. Another insight is not to react impulsively in any situation. There exists a gap between a thought and a response. In between that space, one can either make or break his life. A span of three days will help the businessman to look at the problem objectively and from various angles. A high Intelligent Quotient(IQ) will help a person to crack difficult exams and to solve the complex problems of life. A high emotional quotient(EQ) will make a person mature and helps him to forge healthy relations with others.

Gautama Buddha was a king who renounced his kingdom to understand the mystery of life. He wandered from place to place and enriched himself with many experiences. Finally, he became enlightened. Another insight from the above story is that the teachings of Buddha are helping contemporary men to live a peaceful, silent, and blissful life. His actions are acting as a positive externality to people who wants to become spiritual in their life.

Success is an outcome of the right actions at the right time. Humans are bound by their actions. They can't achieve anything without actions. According to the first law of ecology, "Everything is connected to everything else." Actions follow the law of cause and effect. They have intended or untended consequences. Everybody wants to do actions whose consequences won't come back to bite them. At the surface level, it seems impossible to predict the unintended consequences. As one digs deeper, he can observe that all unintended consequences follow a similar pattern. The awareness of those patterns will help us to avoid them.

When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe. John Muir

An externality is a commonly used term in economics. This model will serve you to make optimal decisions in life. An externality is a cost incurred or benefit received by a third party who doesn't have direct control over the factors that cause it. People like Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Gautama Buddha, etc. pursued their dreams(life's calling) to live a happy and contended life. Their actions act as a positive externality to the people like us. Their audacious steps encourage others to endure harsh conditions and not to give up under any circumstance. They taught us to keep hammering the stone(complex life problems) with an axe(wisdom) until it breaks(solved).

Externalities are of three types:

1. Positive Externality

2. Negative Externality

3. Positional Externality

Positive Externality: The idea of the positive externality is the benefits received by the people who haven't participated in the transaction. The aesthetic exterior and alluring garden of a house create a sense of joy in the hearts of neighbors and passers-by is an example of a positive externality. Externality produces spillover effects. It occurs when the effects of an event spill over the core interaction of an activity. The employee of the industry gets medical training to help others during an accident. The employee can utilize those skills to help others when an accident occurs outside the industry. The sharing of information and skills acquired at the training with the members of other teams helps them to achieve their goals like a promotion at a faster pace.

The government holds vaccination programs to prevent the outbreak of deadly diseases like polio, measles, smallpox, etc. Vaccination generates antibodies within people to fight against fatal viruses. The government wants to achieve herd immunity among its population. Herd immunity is a term used in the medical domain which describes that the majority of the population has developed immunity against a particular disease.

Diseases can spread if they have an eligible host to infect. Vaccination increases the antibodies in the environment. Some people can't be vaccinated due to their suppressed immune systems. If you have taken the vaccination then you are not only protecting yourself but your action acts as a positive externality to those who can't be vaccinated.

The publication of research papers exhibits positive externalities to those who use their applications well beyond their initial scope. Their time is not wasted on reinventing the wheel. In fact, they are standing on their shoulders to see the wider horizon. The discovery of probability is an example of a positive externality. It was initially used to solve gambling disputes. Later on, it is used in other disciplines like calculus, finance, Artificial Intelligence, etc. Now it becomes an intrinsic part of us to make optimal decisions. Patents and Copyrights are issued by the government to protect the intellectual property of researchers. It helps them to earn money before their ideas become streamlined. We all benefit and researchers have the incentive to continue their work.

The positive externality comes at a cost. It poses the free-riding problem. A person who enjoys the benefit without paying the cost tends not to value it. The common resource being exploited causes the tragedy of the common problem. A citizen who cheats while paying taxes is free-riding on the services provided by the government. An employee who is not doing any substantiative work is free-riding on the rest of the project.

Negative Externality: People who bear the cost of a transaction without their participation in it. Suppose a person came home at the night from the office on Friday. He was feeling exhausted and crashed into bed after eating dinner. People living nearby were in a party mood. The loud music was disturbing his sleep. He was bearing the cost without his consent. Another example of a negative externality is of a person who smokes a cigarette affects the health of the people standing nearby him. A person reclines his seat on an airplane. He enjoys more space at the expense of a person who is sitting behind him.

Some people chose not to get vaccinated due to the fear of the harmful effects of vaccination. Their actions are preventing them to achieve herd immunity. Along with that, they are acting as a negative externality to those who can't be vaccinated due to their suppressed immune system. People living near the airport and industries suffer from nose and air pollution bearing the cost without getting any compensation for it.

Positional Externality: It occurs when the decisions change the perception of future value. It takes into account the second-order effects. Suppose a person stays late and leaves the office around 7 pm. His colleagues left the office at 5:30 pm. He wants to remain in the good books of his boss. He thought that it might help him to climb the ladder of ranks. Parkinson's law states that the work expands to fill the time allocated to it. He is not adding extra value to the organization. Those who leave early will be presumed lazy. They will also start staying late in the office. Now staying late in the office becomes a new norm creating a lose-lose situation for everybody.

Veblen goods are also an example of a positional externality. The items like diamonds, Lamborghinis, tailor-made suits, etc are considered Veblen goods. They have very high value due to scarcity. People signal high status by owning them. The ubiquitousness of such items will remove them from the category of Veblen goods. The purchase of Veblen goods causes the positional externality on those who already own them. The utility derived from consuming any good is relative to its average value in society. The value of a new shiny car increases exponentially if people living nearby are driving old wrecked cars.

The cost of an externality can't be measured directly. They can be addressed by using internalization. It is an act of imposing a massive cost on an entity that causes a negative externality. The price imposed tries to maximally cover the cost of dealing with the consequences of the activity. Internalization also tries to create incentives that prevent the happening of a negative externality. The government imposes high taxes on cigarettes. The high insurance premium is offered to smokers as compared to non-smokers.

The construction of tolls to reduce traffic congestion on highways. The high tolls forced the citizens to use public vehicles. It also helps in reducing pollution. The government sets the limit for industries for the emission of air pollutants by issuing carbon quotas to them. The tax credit will be given to industries that use green technology. When unethical behavior is left unchecked and upon crossing a certain threshold becomes the new norm. Therefore, professional codes will be implemented by the government to prohibit immoral conduct.

The Coase theorem is also very helpful in dealing with a negative externality. It was given by Ronald Coase who won the Nobel prize for it in the year 1991. It states that an externality can be internalized efficiently without further need for intervention(either by the government or by an entity regulating the externality) if the following conditions are met:

1. Well-defined property rights.

2. Rational actors.

3. Low transaction cost.

Suppose an industry is releasing waste material in the nearby river. The residents of the area where the industry is established visit the river in the evening to see a beautiful sunset. The release of waste products by the industry makes their experience very unpleasant. The industry acts as a negative externality for the visitors. The river is a public good that is neither owned by the resident nor by the industry. The residents have two options.

1. File a legal case against an industry.

2. By using the Coase theorem.

Filing a case costs millions of dollars and takes a lot of time and effort. The Coase theorem will be of immense help in such situations. The government will issue a permit for the industry to release the pollutants into the river. It poses a limit on the industry to release waste products into the river. Along with that people have to pay a minimal cost to see the dazzling beauty of the river. The profit will go to the industry. It meets the criteria of well-defined property rights. The industry as well as residents are rational actors. The industry will try to maximize profit by using green technology. It will also take care of the river to make it a beautiful tourist spot. The more people visit the river, the more profit for the industry. Coase's theorem has created a win-win situation for both parties for a low transaction cost.

Conclusion: Our actions have the potential to change the trajectory of our lives. They generate positive, negative, and positional externalities. Try your best to generate the maximum number of positive externalities. Counter the effect of the negative externality of others with your positive externality. It creates more positive light in the universe. Align your actions that will bring a smile to the face of your loved ones.

If you have liked this post, please share it with others on WhatsApp, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Please share your feedback in the comment box.

Photo by Helena Lopes on Unsplash

The dilemma of a Coach

Once there was a very disciplined golf coach. His intention is to get the optimal outcome from his students, Steve and John. One day he was observing their performance. John performed really well and Steve performed poorly. He praised John and castigated Steve. On a subsequent day, John's performance degrades whereas Steve's performance improves. He observed that praise deteriorates performance whereas criticism improves performance. His insight is contrary to the motivational theory.

Is it really the case that harsh criticism improves the performance of an individual?

The golf coach is right as well as wrong. His observation is correct but the insight he attributes to the observation is incorrect. He is an amazing golf coach but his statistical skills are rusty. He confuses the correlation with causation. Let's dive deeper into these terms to find out the gaps in the thinking of a golf coach.

The correlation coefficient between the two measures which varies between -1 and 1 is a measure of the relative weight of factors they share. Consider the statement, "Sleep improves the health of an individual." Sleep is correlated with the health of an individual. It is one of the many factors that improve the well-being of an individual. Nutrition, Exercise, Meditation, etc are the other factors that influence the health of an individual. Causation means X causes Y. X is the cause and Y will be its effect. Job promotion increases the salary of an individual. Job promotion is the cause and the hike in salary is its effect.

Let's see some more examples to understand the idea of correlation. Children whose parents consume alcohol got poor grades in school. These statements are very catchy and give a skewed view of reality. The human brain endorses these statements without any thought.

Is it really true?

Sometimes it's good to invert the problem to gain a better understanding of it. It might be possible that children who got poor grades cause depression among their parents. Hence, they started consuming alcohol. The former statement assumes that alcohol consumption by parents causes poor grades whereas the latter statement assumes that poor grades of children force the parents to consume alcohol. The statements seem to be correct in the way they are framed. Both are wrong because each statement assumes that one causes the other. Alcohol consumption and poor grades are correlated with each other but none of them causes the another.

A few years ago, one study revealed that the Success rate of mothers who gave birth to their babies at home was greater than the ones who gave in the hospital. You are more likely to hear these kinds of statements in the news.

Does it mean that the women who assist pregnant ladies have more expertise than professional gynecologists?

In the past, only complicated cases would be taken to hospitals. Such complications arise due to the unprofessional procedures undertaken by the women who assist pregnant ladies. The cases were in terrible situations and it became impossible for the doctors to recover from the damage. Therefore, the success rate of hospitals is lesser than homes. These statements give an incorrect view of reality and don't be swayed by them. Dig deeper to find the root cause to get an unbiased view of reality.

The correlation coefficient is of three types.

1. No Correlation.

2. Perfect Correlation.

3. Weak Correlation.

No Correlation: The correlation coefficient between two measuring entities is zero. In simple words, there doesn't exist any link between the two events. For example, plotting a graph between the suicide rate and the person having a pet in his home won't show any pattern.

Perfect Correlation: The correlation coefficient between two measuring entities is one. According to Wikipedia, temperature is a physical quality that expresses quantitatively the perceptions of hotness and coldness. The hotness and coldness of a body depend upon the velocity of the molecules. Fahrenheit and Celcius are the units for measuring temperature. A one-unit increase in Celcius will produce the same one-unit increase in Fahrenheit. Plotting a graph between Fahrenheit and Celcius produces a straight line. Another name for perfect correlation is causation.

Weak Correlation: The correlation coefficient between two measuring entities lie between 0 and 1. The height and weight of a human body are weakly correlated to each other. It implies that the taller guy has more weight than the short-heightened guy.

Simultaneous occurrences of an event imply that one is causing the other. When two events are weakly correlated to each other then the extreme events will always be followed by the moderate ones. This phenomenon is known as a Regression to the mean. It was discovered by a statistician Francis Galton who found a pattern between the heights of parents and their kids. He observed that the heights of the kids of taller parents are shorter than theirs and vice-versa. The taller parents have above-average heights and their kid's height is more likely to be close to an average value. Later, he found that the regression to the mean and correlation are the two names explaining the same phenomenon.

Mimicking the herd invites regression to the mean. Charlie Munger

How can we use this knowledge to understand the above story?

Success is a combination of talent and luck. More success is a combination of a little more talent and a lot of luck. Luck plays an important role in Golf. John performed above average on one day. It means John is a talented player and a little lucky on that day. Talent is an intrinsic quality that remains static and improves incrementally with hard work. Luck is purely random that fluctuates every day. On a subsequent day, John's performance degrades. Of course, he was a talented player but the luck will move toward an average as extreme events will soften over time. The degradation in performance can't be attributed to praise because the difference arises due to luck which is a random factor.

Steve performed below average on one day. It means that Steve is a bad player plus experienced a stroke of tough luck on that day. On a subsequent day, his performance improves because his luck moves towards an average due to regression to the mean. The increase in performance will be attributed to regression to the mean, not to the harsh criticism.

The lesson is irrespective of what the coach says, their performance will gravitate towards an average. Praise and Criticism have no effect on the performance of a player. The goal of the coach is to find the weaker areas of a player and instruct him accordingly to perform optimally.

Let's see some more real-life examples to understand the concept of regression to the mean.

Head lice were a normal part of life for the inhabitants of Hebrides. The Hebrides is on the west coast of the Scottish mainland. People immediately fell sick when head lice no longer reside on their heads. The simultaneous occurrence of two events makes them believe that head lice are good for their health. They are confusing the correlation as causation. The root cause is lice leave their host because they experience the hotness in their feet due to the rise of the body temperature of a host.

One study reveals that sending more firefighters to a blaze causes more damage to a building. The fire control department immediately freezes the recruitment of firefighters. The root cause is that the minor blaze causes less damage to a building. Therefore, a lesser number of firefighters can handle the situation whereas in the case of a major blaze the damage is so colossal that an even more number of firefighters can't recover the damage.

A newspaper headline describes that depressed children are cured by energy drinks. Parents started giving energy drinks to their depressed kids. Their children have shown an improvement in their behavior. Hence, parents started believing that energy drinks cure depression. Depressed children are at the extremes. They have deviated from their normal behavior. They started showing improvements in their behavior with the passage of time. Irrespective of what they drink, their extreme behavior will be followed by moderate ones.

The human brain has a tendency to fabricate the cause-and-effect relation where no link is present. Even scientists will become victims of this kind of behavior. The antidote is to make use of control groups. Divide the people into two groups. Give energy drinks to one group whereas no treatment would be given to the other group. Track the behavior of both groups. If giving an energy drink shows above-average results then only believe it otherwise ignore such claims.

Sports Illustrated curse is a term that demonstrates that an athlete whose photo appears in the magazine is likely to perform poorly in the subsequent season. The exceptional performance of an athlete happens due to talent and luck. It is highly probable that he will experience average luck in the next season. Therefore, his performance looks bad compared to the previous season. His luck is regressing towards the mean as extreme events are always followed by moderate ones.

Couples generally make a mistake by assuming the initial obsession and optimism to be a real representative of a relationship. It is generally known as the honeymoon period. When you date somebody, you are more likely to see the skewed version of them. They maintain their personal hygiene and look more immaculate than their usual selves. The couples are under the illusion of the Halo effect. It is a cognitive bias that illustrates when one trait is used to make the overall judgment of a person or a thing. Appearances are deceptive. Hence, people ended up marrying the wrong person.

When you're in love you never really know whether your elation comes from the qualities of the one you love, or if it attributes them to her; whether the light which surrounds her like a halo comes from you, from her, or from the meeting of your sparks. Natalie Clifford Barney

A handsome-looking guy might be a terrible person in his personal life. The best way to counter this fallacy is to wait and watch. Withhold your emotions and let the other person comes back to normal behavior. You are more likely to see their virtues and vices by patiently watching them. As you gather more and more information, you are more likely to see the whole picture. It will help you to take the decision more objectively than emotionally.

Regression to the mean is a very important tool that puts reality into proper perspective. Always appreciate the role of luck in success. Before starting any new venture, find the average result and try to meet those averages. Once average results are achieved then work hard for incremental improvements. Any unexpected event is not going to continue indefinitely. Therefore, don't give up after facing extreme failure. Things will revert back to normal with the passage of time.

Always take a large sample space to get a better picture of reality. A human brain is an associative machine that tries to attach causal explanations to every outcome. Never judge an event on the basis of its outcome because luck has played an important role in it. Be more process-oriented rather than result oriented. Optimal decisions are the outcome of good processes which helps you to become a successful person in the long run.

If you have liked this post, please share it with others on WhatsApp, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Please share your feedback in the comment box.

Photo by Courtney Cook on Unsplash

A Ubiquitous Force

Once there was an old man selling balloons at a fair. He released some of the balloons in the air when his business was not generating enough revenue. The balloons of different colors in the sky looked amazing to the children. Hence, they bought it from him. The old man used the same trick at every fair. In one of the fairs, a cute boy came towards him and asked, "Uncle, give me the red balloon." Out of curiosity, the old man replied, "Why do you choose the red balloon out of all these colors?" "The red balloon is higher than all the balloons released by you in the sky," responded the boy. The old man started laughing. Why are you laughing? asked the boy in confusion. My dear boy, it's not the color of the balloon but what is inside it that propels it to rise higher up in the sky.

The crux of the story is outside appearances are deceptive. It's what is inside the person that makes him beautiful. One must be wise to differentiate between inner beauty and outer beauty. Outer beauty is very attractive to the eyes but inner beauty captivates the heart. Outer beauty fades with time but inner beauty is eternal.

Naturally, a question arises in your mind why do some faces are beautiful than others?

The domain of thermodynamics will be helpful in finding the answer to this question. Yeah, I have heard your inner voice. Don't worry, I will not haunt you with complex mathematical equations. Let's start the journey of understanding the fundamentals of thermodynamics. It is the study of the set of laws that governs how the world works. It describes the change in energy within the system and the amount of useful work done by the system on its surrounding. It explains the degree of disorder present in any system, how the energy changes from one form to another, and the direction in which the heat will flow. All the systems present in the universe are moving towards disorder.

The four laws that set the foundation of thermodynamics are:

1. First Law of Thermodynamics: Energy cannot be created or destroyed. It can only be converted from one form to another. An example is the conversion of light into heat. This is also known as the law of conservation of energy. Heat and Work are the two types of energy exchanges. Heat is the energy exchanged through thermal interaction and work is the energy exchange other than heat. All the work can be converted into heat but all the heat can't be converted into work.

2. Second Law of Thermodynamics: The entropy of an isolated system increases with the passage of time. An isolated system is one that spontaneously moves towards disorder. One has to expend some energy to create order out of disorder.

3. Third Law of Thermodynamics: When the temperature reaches absolute zero the entropy of any system attains a constant value.

4. Zeroth Law of Thermodynamics: When two systems(A and B) are in thermal equilibrium with the third system(C), then the two systems(A and B) are also in thermal equilibrium with each other.

Learning is of no use unless one applies it in day-to-day life. The field of thermodynamics has many metaphorical applications. It's time to see its magic.

On Choosing a Spouse: Suppose you went to a beach and built a beautiful castle on the sand. You return to the same place after two days. Will you find the castle intact at that place? Absolutely not. Why so? The magic of entropy is at work. The waves of the ocean and the wind have destroyed it. The oceanic waves and wind can arrange the particles of sand in an infinite number of ways. The beautiful castle is one of the arrangements of those infinite ways. Is it possible for the sand particles to arrange themselves on their own due to the wind and oceanic waves to build a beautiful castle? The probability is infinitesimally low.

Why are some faces more beautiful than others? They are beautiful due to the symmetrical arrangement of the organs like eyes, ears, nose, chin, eyebrows, etc. There are an infinite number of combinations that makes the face or body structure asymmetrical. Out of these, only a few are in perfect alignment with each other.

Appearances are deceptive. Beauty is only skin deep. Don't get influenced by it. A beautiful face has nothing to do with the qualities of a person. Be more interested in inner beauty like kindness, humility, respect, and unconditional love while choosing a soulmate for yourself. If you will found beauty with brain then you will enjoy the best of both worlds. According to Charlie Munger, to become successful in life one has to avoid early death and a bad marriage.

Happy Marriages: Children are known as entropy machines. Everything is arranged properly in a clean room. There are rules for each entity like a drawer for socks, a hanger for shirts and pants, a locker for jewelry, etc. Many children don't follow the rules and throw their entities at random places which makes the room messier. An effort is needed to keep everything in order. Human beings always try to reduce their efforts which paves the way for the second law of thermodynamics. There are many possible combinations that make the room messier. Out of them, only a few are in order.

Similarly, all happy marriages are alike and unhappy marriages are unhappy in their own ways. Crazy in-laws, financial stress, infidelity, etc. are the reasons behind unhappy marriages. A small amount of success is needed in all the major areas to run the relationships smoothly. Happy marriages follow a definite structure. Therefore, all happy marriages are alike. There are many ways to demolish that structure. Hence, unhappy marriages are unhappy in their own ways. A continuous investment of energy is required to maintain a clean room. Likewise, continuous investment of energy is required to thwart the pull of entropy to maintain a healthy relationship.

Just as the constant increase of entropy is the basic law of the universe, so it is the basic law of life to be ever more highly structured and to struggle against entropy. Václav Havel

The success of any individual is directly proportional to the number of happy relations one has with others. Cooperation drives civilization and fosters growth. The fundamentals of thermodynamics provide a unique perspective on relationships. A successful relationship demands a continuous investment of energy. The natural question arises,

Is there any limit to the number of relationships one can maintain with others?

Robin Dunbar an evolutionary anthropologist gives an answer to this question. According to his research, the number of successful relations one has with others is directly proportional to the size of the neo-cortex present in the brain. The number of stable relations one has with others is one hundred and fifty. One hundred and fifty is also known as the Dunbar number. When the number exceeds one hundred and fifty then the brain is overloaded with information. It becomes difficult for the brain to process the information. Choose those one hundred and fifty people wisely. Foster relationships with those people who are happy to see you succeed and nudge you to become the best version of yourself.

The idea behind Border Walls: When a hot object is exposed to a cold object, heat will flow from the hot object to the cold object. Eventually, both of them reach a thermal equilibrium state. In other words, they are at the same temperature. Insulators are used to slow down the cooling process. Thermos is an insulator designed to slow down the cooling of hot coffee. Any barrier will only slow down the process but cannot prevent it altogether.

What if instead of two objects but two societies of different values are exposed to each other?

They too will reach the equilibrium known as social or cultural equilibrium. Borders and walls act as an insulator to prevent the two societies of different cultures from mingling with each other. The Romans built the Hadrian wall from coast to coast in North England to prevent their society from mixing with the hostile tribe living on the other side of the wall. Still, Romans moved to the other side and built relations with them. The borders can't prevent social equilibrium but only slows down it. An entropy moves the system toward equilibrium. Constructing a hundred percent effective barriers is a very resource-intensive task.

The Chinese people built The Great Wall of China to prevent their culture from outside influences. The philosophy of the Chinese people is to define, enclose, and exclude. Their intention is to maintain their cultural superiority. Despite all this, other cultures still influenced them. It is impossible for two societies having different cultures from intermixing with each other.

After the second world war, the Berlin wall separates East Germany from West Germany. The construction of the Hadrian wall and the Great Wall of China is to protect the Romans from hostile tribes and to maintain Chinese cultural superiority respectively. The Berlin wall was not only built to restrict the movement of people but also to prevent the sharing of ideas. It acted like a psychological barrier because East German ideology is inclined towards communism and behavior-shaping propaganda. It is hard to change the behavior of people if the ideas of the outer world influence them.

After the second world war, Berlin was occupied by America, Russia, Britain, and France. Until 1961, it worked as a single city. The people who didn't like the East German ideology escaped to West Berlin and from there to West Germany. Until 1961, around two and a half million population fled to West Germany. Most of them were skilled workers. The country was losing its cream of educated professionals. Therefore, they built a Berlin wall with multiple layers of deterrents. Any passage that connected East Germany from West Germany was sealed off. Still, people fled to West Germany albeit at a higher cost.

It is impossible to prevent the flow of ideas as well as people. In 1989, the Berlin wall was demolished by the same people who built them. The Berlin wall undermines the value of communism that East Germans were trying to preach. The Hadrian wall, The Great Wall of China, and The Berlin wall were describing the relentless pull of entropy on cultures, ideas, and people. No barrier was hundred percent effective and maintaining any barriers needs a continuous investment of energy.

Personal Growth: Chaotic systems like Weather, Economy, etc surround human beings. Chaotic Systems are those systems in which it is impossible to predict the outcome of an event in any given situation. One can roughly guess the outcome of a situation. It is impossible to predict how the company will fare over time or the economy of any country. Mathematician Edward Lorenz is famous for studying chaotic systems, pioneering a branch of mathematics known as Chaos theory. He introduced the metaphor of the butterfly effect to explain the chaotic systems.

According to the butterfly effect, a butterfly flapping its wings in one area sends air particles in a slightly different direction than they would have otherwise traveled which then amplified over time will produce the tornado in another area. The core idea behind the butterfly effect is that small changes in initial conditions will produce an outsize outcome later in life. The magic of the compounding effect is also in accordance with the chaotic systems.

Life is also a chaotic system. No one knows what will happen in the future. Nobody wants to graduate from college during the economic downturn or expects to lose his spouse at an early age. Planning ahead of time is the only factor that is within our control. The ability to adapt to changing conditions is crucial for success in life. One must know the skills to turn lemons into lemonade. Everybody has some butterfly moments in his life. What if you had taken the mechanical branch instead of the computer science branch? What if you hadn't gone to the event where you met with your spouse?

The antidote to the chaotic systems is to increase your luck surface area. Surface area is defined as how much area the surface of an object covers. An increase in the amount of personal entropy increases the luck surface area. Expose yourself to different situations to think multi-dimensionally. Meet people from different domains to understand their perspectives on life. Travel to foreign countries to understand their culture and traditions.

Rigidity comes through too much order. One won't be able to adapt to changing conditions. Too much disorder hampers productivity. Sometimes it is okay to say yes to some activities to increase personal entropy. Strike out a balance between order and disorder to gain optimal results. According to me, the equation to life is:

Personal Growth = X(Order) + 1-X(Disorder).

The value of X lies between zero and one. When X is 1, life becomes rigid. When X is zero, life is in complete disorder. Change the value of X according to the situation.

The only things that evolve by themselves in an organization are disorder, friction, and malperformance. Peter Drucker

Mismatch Conditions: People are born with specific strengths and talents. It is very unlikely that the ambiance in which they are born is also in accordance with their strengths. Evolutionary biologists call them mismatch conditions. There are an infinite number of capabilities. Out of them, only a few are in accordance with a specific culture. An example of entropy. It is true that great people like Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Warren Buffet, etc. are born at the right time. The reason behind their success is that they explicitly made effort to fight the pull of entropy to cultivate strengths that match their culture.

Habits: Heat transfers from the hot object to the cold object. If the goal is to share the energy between two objects then expose them to each other. On the other hand, if the goal is to prevent the sharing of energy then create a barrier between them. What if instead of objects people having different habits are exposed to each other? Pay close attention to the people with whom you are hanging out and choose them wisely. Hang out with those people whose normal behavior matches your desired behavior. Suppose you want to increase your fitness. Hang out with those who are fitness freaks and stop going with people who are eating unhealthy.

Time: Time is the most precious resource. If left unmanaged(entropy), one will not go far in life. Allocate your time to those activities that will move you closer to your goals. Use the Eisenhower decision matrix to allocate your time effectively. Similarly, if one is not mindful of money and nutrition then the pull of entropy will make him financially and nutritionally unhealthy.

Messy arrangements far outweigh orderly ones. Brian Greene

The sacredness of Art and Life: Take the pieces of a puzzle and dump them on a table. It is very unlikely that the puzzle will get solved. There are many ways to arrange the puzzle out of which only one combination will solve it. Similarly, the human body is made up of a large number of atoms. The chances are infinitesimally small that the atoms are arranged on their own to create an orderly structure of the body that we call life. Everything is moving toward disorder. The orderly arrangement and synchronization in which the human body works make us look at life in a sacred way.

An artist creates art that cannot happen randomly on its own. An artist expends a considerable amount of energy to create order out of the disorder. Next time when you look at any piece of art, treat it like a sacred object. Murphy's law is a common adage people toss around in conversations. Murphy's law states that if anything can go wrong then it will. The underlying idea behind murphy's law is entropy. There are an infinite number of possibilities by which a thing can go wrong. Out of them, only a few will work.

Things are moving towards disorder. The total disorder is also incompatible with life. When everything is at rest then life ceases to exist altogether. The total disorder leads to the end state of the universe as a homogeneous gas evenly distributed everywhere known as the heat death of the universe.

Conclusion: Thermodynamics is a ubiquitous force that permeates every aspect of our life. The growth of weeds in a garden, the aging of people, rust on iron, messier rooms, failure of banks, relationships, and organizations are examples of entropy. Problems arise on their own. It's not because of black magic or some cosmic force conspiring against us. There are so many ways for things that can go wrong. The purpose of our life is to exert energy to create an order that solves those problems.

If you have liked this post, please share it with others on WhatsApp, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Please share your feedback in the comment box.

Photo by Hannah Busing on Unsplash