You Locally Reverse Entropy

Words That I Live By

Happy Monday y’all.

Last week, I told you all to think about my favourite quote: You Locally Reverse Entropy 👐. If you did get to think about it, take a sec here and drop in the comments what you think it means!

The reason I love this quote is because on the first read, I interpreted it for something that it was not necessarily trying to say.

First off, wtf is entropy? Entropy in simple terms means the degree of disorder/uncertainty in a system. It specifically has to do with heat and energy conversion. A simple statement of the law is that heat always flows spontaneously from hotter 🥵 to colder 🥶 regions of matter. Thus, the entropy of the universe is always increasing, as systems dissipate energy. There is a theory that the end of the universe will be when we get to a point of entropy where it can’t be further increased. This is known as the heat death of the universe.

I first read this quote when I bought the book 📕 The Almanack of Naval Ravikant. I was doing some research on the book and saw this quote highlighted. Granted I thought this book was going to be solely spiritual, I immediately interpreted in a spiritual/moral sense. I thought, “well, humans increase entropy, thus we all innately contribute to the disorder of the universe, literally.” More times than not, humans don’t necessarily provide value to their surroundings. We’re selfish animals. So in my head, I saw being able to reverse entropy as a choice. You can either increase the disorder of what’s around you, OR, you can provide it with value. You can make your surrounding, or WHO is in your surrounding, less disordered.

That instantly clicked in my head because tbh, that’s how I want to be. Whether its as a simple surrounding as ordering in a coffee shop ☕️, or spending time with friends, to things like running a company, or working in the hospital; I don’t want to be the person that contributes to the disorder, I want to be a person that (uno) reverses it.

I googled this some more and discovered that Naval was actually making a critically acclaimed perspective to the theory of actual thermodynamics. Haha man was I off. BUT, I found an online forum that interpreted it the same way I did. Reading the comments I clicked even more with the idea. An example I read is even in a company or government, being a leader means you have to reverse the natural disorder that comes with individual systems (people). Being able to do that is what makes a leader, a good leader.

Since that, I began to think about it more and more. I began to approach situations thinking “okay if there is a source of disorder here, how can I reverse that? How can I provide value here?” And honestly, you may think that’s so corny 🌽, but, I don’t care. For me, it has really opened my mind up on perspective. It has helped me improve how I read situations and people. It has improved my people skills, and my leadership abilities. And again, that is why I love the quote so much, because I interpreted in a way that benefited me.

I actually just got this quote tatted on my forearm recently! Want to see it? HMU.

So now I will ask you all, what do you think about that? Is that a stupid interpretation? Does that make sense to you? Does that connect with you? If so, please please please let me know your thoughts. There are only a few close people that I have shared this quote and interpretation with; today I share it with you all. I would love to know your thoughts; comment below, or message me! Let’s chat more about how you can locally reverse entropy. Maybe let’s set that as a goal this week: look for one experience where you can pick out the disorder and uncertainty, and then, be a source of reversal.

Cheers to reversing entropy! Have a blessed week.

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☕️ Weekly Coffee Count: 14 cups of coffee this past week…it’s crazy cuz I went through Wednesday with only 5, and then man was Thursday-Saturday a rough few days 😬

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🗞 Here are some recent news that I think you may find interesting!

Nepali Doc Sues Board in Cheating Scandal

A Nepali medical graduate seeks to block invalidation of her USMLE scores, claiming that she was unfairly connected to a wide-scale cheating scandal.

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Traditional Atlantic Diet and Its Effect on Health and the Environment

In this secondary analysis of a cluster randomized clinical trial including 574 participants, a traditional Atlantic dietary intervention significantly reduced the incidence of metabolic syndrome.

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The correct answer from last week was B) Acute Cholecystitis

🩺 Our Patient Assignment For This Morning’s Round

A 52-year-old man with a past medical history of type 2 diabetes mellitus and well-controlled hypertension presents to the emergency department with sudden-onset chest pain radiating to the left jaw and arm. He also reports nausea and diaphoresis. Vital signs on arrival: BP 160/100 mmHg, HR 110 bpm, RR 20 breaths/min, SpO2 98% on room air. Physical examination reveals diaphoresis and pallor. Electrocardiogram shows ST-segment elevation in leads V1-V6.

I will drop the correct answer at next weeks round!

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💡 Opportunities

Fight Hunger Around Canada's Breakfast Tables

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