From indie hacking to democracy: Entropy is fatal
https://kerkour.com/entropy-is-fatal
"Not overstuffing your house will bring peace of mind, not a vacuum cleaner. Not overfilling your agenda will bring your the freest time, not productivity hacks. Removing layers of management will increase the productivity of your colleagues, not filling their time with meetings"
It's hard to disagree with someone who is advocating for less bureaucracy, less complication. But I'm gonna do it.
We all need a little bit of chaos. It gets demonized all the time, but it's important. It's where creativity comes from.
in the world of creative polarity dynamics (aka feminine/masculine, yin/yang, etc.), the feminine is usually thought of as chaos, while the masculine is order. And it is in the polarity of the two — the holding of both poles — that the creative force is created.
If you go fully into chaos, you'll be lost in it. If you go fully to order, you'll be lifeless.
Your example of the house is a good one. The more you have in your house, the more time and energy it'll take up. Couldn't agree more. But clearing out your house can soon leave you with nothing. How's an empty house (no furniture, no appliances, no food, etc.) going to feel?
There are definitely people living in chaos who could use this advice. But there are also people living in order who could use the opposite advice. That's why these all-or-nothing "this is the way" posts don't work for me.
As in all things, balance is what's needed.
And of course, thank you for posting — it was an interesting read.
Nice — love this. Balance is a great thing :)
Love this, nice find!
When I started to Marie Kondo / minimalize my home, I noticed such a difference. My mind was clearer. I began eating better. I started reading more.
I can see how the principles from this article could really help a business.
Really enjoyed this piece as it's bigger than just indie hacking.
Our tendency as humans, founders, employees, and citizens is to over-complicate things.
Be it an app or a system of government, we rarely praise the simplification of something rather than making it more robust or full of features. Thinking about this on a personal level, I can see how I've allowed entropy at times to sow chaos and disappointment.
The author highlights "the sources of entropy to 3 causes. 3 poisons from where all the chaos originates." The 3 poisons are:
I totally agree.
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In an isolated system, entropy can only increase
Love this.
Entropy claims that as "a system becomes more disordered, its energy becomes more evenly distributed and less able to do work, leading to inefficiency."
Basically, if we are not hyper-vigilant, every company will eventually become a bureaucratic mess. As they become more complicated they become even more dependent upon rules and regulations, making them even more complicated.
My first job was like this. Every. Single. Thing. Had. To. Run. Through. The. System.
I felt like my head was caving in to make simple changes or requests. Documentation is important but at what expense? I complained to a friend about the company and she sent me this article: https://bizfluent.com/info-12110475-entropy-business.html
Perfectly capture how employees suffer as a result and people grow to hate their job. It's a pretty depressing cycle. That said, it's also difficult to be aware of it once a company reaches more than 50+ people.
I don't envy people that have to fight against entropy every day.
Great piece. I like his solution too.
"To achieve sustainability, we simply have to reduce the complexity of our systems and organizations. The problem is that it requires active work towards this goal. And, most of the time, it's not rewarded to its true value, or simply not rewarded at all."