Thermodynamics

intermediate2 min readbusiness · economics · psychology · physics

Thermodynamics describes energy transfer, entropy and thermal equilibrium. Its account of the energy needed to sustain processes can also suggest metaphors for maintenance, though social order and motivation are not physical entropy or heat.

THE IDEA

Thermodynamics

Thermodynamics describes energy transfer, the direction of heat flow and the conditions for equilibrium. Its laws also constrain how much useful work a process can produce. The four laws are often introduced in this order:

The first law expresses conservation of energy. A system’s energy changes through transfers, including heat, work and, for an open system, matter. Energy can also change form, such as from light to heat. A cyclic heat engine cannot turn all the heat it absorbs into work without any other effect.
The second law states that the total entropy of an isolated system cannot decrease. It increases in irreversible processes and remains constant in an ideal reversible process. Entropy is a thermodynamic state quantity; describing it as disorder is a limited analogy. A local decrease in entropy is possible when accompanied by a sufficient increase elsewhere.
The third law of thermodynamics states that as temperature approaches absolute zero, the entropy of a given system approaches a constant value.
Listed fourth here, the zeroth law was formulated after the first three laws but supplies a foundation for the concept of temperature. It states that if two objects are in thermal equilibrium with a third object, then those two objects are also in thermal equilibrium with each other.

As a metaphor, maintaining a system can prompt useful questions about continuing inputs and upkeep. A business needs resources to maintain equipment and processes. That comparison does not make organizational disorder a measurement of physical entropy or imply that social systems obey a law of inevitable decline.

« The energy state of an economy—that is, its temperature—largely determines what its members can do and how fast they can do it. Temperature—the average kinetic energy of the moving molecules in a gas—affects every chemical process and every physical property associated with life. It influences not only the cost of doing business, but the speed at which tasks can be accomplished, and perhaps most importantly the range of adaptive options available. Temperature is, in other words the crucial link between energy and time; the two components of power.»

Geerat Vermeij

When to use it

Personal productivity: Applying effort consistently to prevent tasks from becoming chaotic.
Team management: Recognizing that without active maintenance, team cohesion and processes degrade.
Process design: account for the energy inputs and waste heat associated with running equipment.
Environmental analysis: examine energy flows, conversion losses and waste heat within a clearly defined system.

FROM THEORY TO EVERYDAY LIFE

In practice

Business Entropy

As an organization grows, processes become disordered unless energy (effort, resources) is continuously applied to maintain order. Companies that neglect maintenance gradually become inefficient.

Social Equilibrium

A team’s enthusiasm can affect how members work together. Calling that an increase in energy is a social metaphor; it does not describe a change in thermodynamic temperature or establish a physical law of productivity.

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A MOMENT TO REFLECT

Put it to work.

Where in your life or work are you seeing entropy increase? What 'energy' can you apply to restore order?
How can you use contrast to your advantage in your career, similar to the temperature gradient in thermodynamics?
Consider the people you spend the most time with: are they adding energy to your system or draining it?