This morning, the thought to leave the mess till later did enter my mind, but then, I said to myself, “just slowly and mechanically attack the mess and it will be done” Your article and advice, “Do it now” confirmed for me, I am on the right track.

Not only did I resolve , ahead of time, the obvious stress that a continued messy Kitchen would have acheived, but I am feeling comfortable in a clean environment, and just chalked off my 10 day on my quit progress.

I read what they wrote about the more updated way of understanding the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics and I realized I had to write you since it implies that you might have to redo your otherwise enjoyable article. Apparently, the 2nd Law where entropy is involved is not a Law of Disorder but a Law of Order. While reading your article, although I was enjoying myself, I was slightly disturbed by the fact that it hinted that this world is moving towards chaos whereas nature, as I observe it tends towards order – hence, the word “cosmos” for the universe. That’s why when I read this more updated interpretation of the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics, I was, I have to say, relieved, and thought that it made more sense.

Thus, man’s tendency not to fix his bed everyday cannot anymore be explained by the 2nd law of thermodynamics or entropy. According, in fact, to that law, he should fix his bed. Fortunately, doctrine of original sin exists and can perfectly explain it – laziness. Of course, that may be a matter of faith, and others may not accept it (I fully respect that), but it does explain it. The “loophole” you were talking about was not loophole at all, but rather The Law of Maximum Entropy Production (MEP) which you can read here (this is actually a link of that previous URL I wrote above): http://www.entropylaw.com/thermoevolution10.html.

Your DO IT NOW secret is, according to the Law of MEP the “path or assembly of paths out of otherwise available paths that minimizes the potential or maximizes the entropy at the fastest rate given the constraints.” For me, that is very exciting since I have just found a scientific basis to that “secret” which I myself believe in and practice as often as my laziness doesn’t overcome me. As for the “original sin” part, I am one of those who believe that theology is a true science and so I have no problem putting in that explanation in an otherwise “scientific” discussion, especially where empirical science offers none.

Let me finish by thanking you so much for this wonderful initiative. I intend to go through all these articles on virtues of Franklin and share this with my students and the other members of my faculty. I have bookmarked your site and have downloaded the e-book. You have a great site, something which I believe will do many men and women a lot of good. More power and God bless!

Shaun-
We actually did quite a bit of research before we we wrote the article. And we’re not trying to teach people about entropy from a scientific standpoint.

The comparison between entropy and a clean and messy room is actually quite a common one. I first heard it from my physics teacher in college. But scientists have admittedly moved away from defining entropy as disorder, and now define it as the measure of energy dispersal. Still, looking at entropy as the measure of things falling into chaos is very useful. It may not be strictly scientific, but it works as a way to describe what we all experience-things moving from order to disorder. Things naturally take the path of least resistance. This may not be how scientists use the term entropy but there aren’t any other terms that will work, so we’re simply co-opting it and using it in a broader manner.

‘This is a very cursory explanation, so please all you scientists out there, don’t tell me that I failed to mention something. I know I did.’