Entropy
blogThe universe is entropic, life becomes chaos and disorder unless it is properly maintained. Life is like a garden that, left untended, becomes suffocated with weeds. Hair grows, brain cells die, teeth decay, ideas stagnate, clothes develop holes, stomachs rumble, throats becomes parched — body, mind, and soul all fall into disrepair without proper care.
Reducing entropy levels to a minimum is foundation of a happy life. And the best way of reducing entropy is to pay attention of all aspects of your existence and ensure they are kept in harmony.
It is a long-term project, life. The seeds you plant today may take weeks to germinate, months to blossom, and years to reach their full potential. For those who don’t plant and cultivate their seed, just letting it spill wherever it may, life is random and disappointing. Random, because you have no control over what is going to emerge. Disappointing, because whatever does emerge has been neglected at the stage when it needed most attention. Also, those things which flourish without attention become so ubiquitous that people start calling them weeds.
With all this in mind, I have put together an A to Z of Entropy, a guide to avoid common entropic problems.
A to Z of Entropy
Addiction
When we are hungry, we eat. When we are thirsty, we drink. When we are horny, we fuck. The mind is built to “enjoy its pleasures” via the neurochemicals dopamine and serotonin. Unfortunately our desires have been perverted by advertising, addicting us us to junk food, caffeine and pornography. We are slaves to a brain that still lives as though the world weren’t overwhelmed with temptation. To avoid entropy, avoid modern culture.
Alcohol
Although it is ideal for social bonding it also makes you lethargic so try to limit consumption to once a week.
Animality
Don’t deny it, but don’t become a slave to it either. Work with it, not against it.
Anxiety
So much of our energy is taken up in worrying about the future or mulling over the past. The future doesn’t exist and you can’t do anything about the past, so focus on the present moment. Be mindful and anxiety will fade away.
Appearance
Judging by appearances is sensible, it is a shortcut to understanding. Think of your appearance as a quick way of telling people about yourself.
Asceticism
Should be used as a palate cleanser, a way to appreciate pleasures without becoming jaded by them.
Balance
You don’t need to be a taoist to appreciate when things are in harmony. To incorporate balance in my own life, I have created a list of ten areas which I think are important: inluding friendship, focus, mindfulness, being organised, and health. I test myself against each one to make sure it is not being neglected.
Bath or Shower
Baths are contemplative, ruminatory, and far less violent than a shower. For this reason, they should be used sparingly.
Beards
They stop you having to shave everyday, which is useful. Avoid those stupid beards that require shaving to keep neat.
Blogging
Some people disdain blogging because it encourages sloppy, unedited writing, but as a way of connecting people with niche interests it is excellent.
Body
There is nothing without it. You are your body. Embrace it.
Breakfast
In Germany people have breakfast parties, a civilized way of enjoying company without the alcoholic entropy of an evening meal. And you have the rest of the day ahead of you.
Caffeine
It has been scientifically proven that heavy consumers of caffeine areinured to its effects, making them more tired and grouchy in the mornings. Save it for special occasions.
Capitalism
Capitalism is debauchery, abandoning all principles to satisfy desires. What we need is a regulated capitalism, ordered by government and society, just as the body works best when it is ruled by the mind. Feudalism is where principle overrides pleasure. It allows for narrow but intense satisfaction. Capitalism spreads pleasure until they are suitably bland.
Carbohydrates
Foods like pasta exhaust the body by filling it with sugar. Eat complex carbs like quinoa instead.
Change
Life is in the chase: it moves! Rules don’t move. Rules remain the same. Embrace change in order to embrace life.
Clarity
To gain clarity, first get yourself in the moment, then write down the problem you want to solve, use different perspectives, then make confident decisions.
Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive dissonance is the key factor in much modern anxiety. Dissonance comes when an idea conflicts with your sense of self. There are two ways of dealing with dissonance: resolve it or ignore it, neither is perfect.
Confidence
Denial, delay, and procrastination are signs that you lack confidence in your decision making.
Decadence
When I’ve been ill, I’ve been thinking about dandyism and how the dandies – with their refinement – are the ones who understand that life needs to be constantly refreshed and attended to if it isn’t to decay.
Declutter
Every additional possession weighs you down by its presence. Remove the extraneous and the sentimental.
Diet
Dieting doesn’t work. Any system that requires you to adopt abnormal and irregular patterns of behaviour may provide short-term gains but ultimately results in reversion to the norm. Even if you suddenly became lithe and alive with your new routine, eudaemonologists tell us that happiness levels always return to the baseline. To be healthy, you have to work within the norms — tweaking your routines to remove a little of the bad and add more of the good.
Email
One thing that royal mail has over email is that it comes but once a day. Check email once a day to get the same thrill.
Entropy
Entropy is a measure of the energy loss in a closed system.
Escapism
The more you try to escape your problems, the more they will come to dominate you. Face up and move on.
Failure
There is no such thing as failure, just feedback.
Finances
Keep your finances in check, spend less than you earn, and have enough money so that you don’t have to think about money.
Fitness Faking
Fitness faking things. Mind desires tasty food and luscious bodies. The body gets fast food and pornography.
Food
Processing food is one of the most energy consuming activities that body has to do. Eat light foods wherever possible.
How to Live
The question of How to Live consumes an awful amount of psychical energy so don’t ruminate too much.
Junk Food
Abusing the body with junk food disrupts the digestive processes. The liver and kidneys become less efficient.
Kaizen
The Japanese idea of gradual improvement, based on the idea that it is better to improve a million small things than one big thing.
Loose Ends
The more loose ends you have, the less effective you will be. Finish projects, break them down into sub-projects if you have to, and make sure they have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Then move on to the next project.
Meaning of Life
The meaning of life is something we confer on the world – not something that is conferred on us.
Meat
It doesn’t take much thought to see how eating dead things could be entropic. All the pain, confinement, and suffering of these animals may not show when wrapped up in clingfilm, but it is there for anyone who chooses to think.
Meditation
Only if we do nothing occasionally can we understand what doing something means.
Memory
Life’s trajectory is based on the internal narrative we tell ourselves. Change the story and you change the future. Forget about the past if it is holding you back.
Negativity
Focusing on entropy is inherently self-defeating. By focussing on the negative, how can you expect to find the positive?
News
Our brains are attuned to human suffering, but not 24 hours a day. Avoid.
Not Thinking
Superficially, it may seem obvious that not thinking is a good way to avoid the problems of entropy but this is a short-term solution. The key is not to do too much ruminating.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
The opposite of entropy is OCD, which attempts to put too much order on the world. Combat with Wabi Sabi.
Pleasure
Always a by-product of activity not an end in itself.
Possessions
Only a means to an end.
Present Moment
This is where everything happens, so ensure that you make the most of it. Focus your entire being on the moment.
Prohibitions
If American puritanism has taught us anything it is that prohibitions are not effective. Instead of creating rules of what you shouldn’t do, practice doing the things that you should do.
Quietude
Learn to enjoy being alone and in silence, quietening the chattering monkey brain.
Rock Bottom
The good thing about hitting rock bottom is that it gives you a foundation.
Routine
I like routines, they force me to do things that I wouldn’t ordinarily do (like learn Spanish whilst walking to work). Nevertheless they can cause a lot of cognitive dissonance, especially when you’re tired. Best to try not to do too much at once. What destroys routines? Tiredness, disillusion, laziness, distraction.
Self-Consciousness
The main difference between self-consciousness and mindfulness is that self-consciousness is obsessed with the inner workings of its own mind, whereas mindfulness is obsessed with the external world. They are antithetical.
Siesta
The extent to which sleep is neglected in the modern world is astonishing. The post-prandial nap is rarely granted to the modern worker and it shows. Siestas can be difficult to get right, but a good one sets you up to enjoy the rest of the day.
Sleep
Lack of sleep causes of much of the entropy that afflicts modern urban life. Albert Einstein is said to have taken eleven hours a night when working on a particularly difficult problem. Sleep, quality untroubled sleep, is where the unconscious most of its work. Without it we are like monkeys, chattering away about nothing.
Social Networking
Provide the drip drip of distraction, eroding your ability to think.
Tidiness
Tidiness is good when people deal with decay straight away rather than letting it fester.
Wabi Sabi
Allow decay to take place then it is in the name of beauty.
Why?
Ask why you want to do something. Then ask why again. And again. Keep asking it until you get to the kernel of your motivation.