in A16z, career, Charlie Munger, energy, Engineer, entropy, Li Lu, Marc Andreessen, miracles

Defaults

The default in the world we live in is entropy. Left to its own devices, death, decay are the defaults.

As a young Engineer, I took it for granted that I contributed so little to building things, fixing things, maintaining things. Some of the tedious work seemed unimportant to me. However having travelled the world now, I see entropy is the default in many places and in many areas. Or I should say that when I see anti-entropy, I am marvelled and amazed at it that much more. And I see that all the “work” we do, the potential and real energy we put behind in our day jobs, in our chores are steps to stave off this entropic default.

Some of it takes training, like in the case of safety culture and mindsets. Sometimes it takes years to create something like that and it takes even more effort to get it to the last few percentage points.

Even the smallest of things, I’ve come to realize are really “miracles”.

All that said is to say: adjust your expectations lower — as Charlie Munger said, you’ll be less disappointed when you come across a mediocre situation (which is what the majority of us would encounter in most situations.)

Lastly, be grateful in whatever your situation is. As you’re reading this, I’m certain that the abundance you have is all around you because of you and everyone’s hard work to fight entropy. We are the beneficiaries of our ancestors and our fellow world citizens who work tirelessly to maintain a better world.


Post-script: Here are a couple reads related to the topic and just so happens to mirror my own feelings on the matter: