WorkLore

If you’d had a longer conversation with me, you might have learned that I started as a science major. Biology, but I took enough chemistry and physics to be dangerous. 

Recently, I found myself thinking about the axiom that we only stop growing when we die (or at least we should only stop then). 

And I wondered why we think we always need to be growing.

We talk a lot about Carol Dweck’s research on growth mindsets because that’s what we value in our businesses. The core tenet of growth in this case is being able to envision a future that is different than today and taking steps toward that future, all the while believing that we can show up differently tomorrow than we do today as we work toward that future. 

Growth also, then, inherently requires an input of energy.

See, I didn’t take too long to get to talking physics. 

Because one of the implications of entropy is the natural progression of complexity to simplicity or order to disorder in complex systems. 

And if human beings aren’t complex systems, well, then I will have to rethink my whole approach to the world. 

Which suggests that even to create stability in a system requires an input of energy. We can’t just rely on the energy already in the system to maintain it because of … entropy. 

I can’t help but think as humans we are subject to the same. Our complex body systems require constant input to keep them going, and even then, things start to slow down, break down, and wind down as we age. 

Might not be the same for our thought processes? 

That’s setting aside the fact that as social creatures, our world is constantly changing, which – by necessity – requires us to change as well. Growing up in an analog age when movies were only shown in theatres, baby bottles needed to be heated up in water in a saucepan on the stove, and homework could be ruined by dogs and rain, I’ve had to change just to keep pace. 

I’m reminded of a conversation I had about three years ago, just as AI was emerging into many people’s consciousnesses, and someone in the group said “I’m retiring soon, so I’m not going to bother learning this”. 

I don’t think they were thinking beyond the workplace, but even then, a retirement only three to five years out would have put them directly in the AI workplace in pretty much any white collar job (which is what they were in). The rapidity of this most recent change is one that really drives home how complexity in a system needs constant input and energy in order to maintain, let alone grow. 

So, as much as sometimes I sigh when something new comes along that now I have to learn, or understand, or engage with, I do. Because I don’t want to wind down any time soon, and as a complex system, I need to keep my personal entropy at bay.