The essence of the law of entropy increase is the division formula of "an isolated system inevitably falls into disorder": once a person, a family, an enterprise, or a nation stops importing external energy (learning, tending, reform, institutions), disorder necessarily rises — consuming without repairing (E takes), taking without tending (S cools), relying on the old without renewal (T fails) — and Y decays with it.
The remedy lies in becoming "an importer of negentropy": open the system, keep working, build order — and the new connotation of money puts the three values E, S, T on one ledger, so that every act of "importing negentropy" is measured and rewarded. The self-regulating virtuous cycle begins; individual, family, enterprise and nation stay ordered together and all win.
One Formula to Understand It
E energy input (learning · training · producing) · S order of relationships (trust · communication · culture) · T institutional renewal (habits · processes · reform)
An open system continuously importing negentropy multiplies; a closed system grows ever more disordered, and the total decays.
When a system only takes, never replenishes; only repeats, never renews — no learning, no tending, no reform —
disorder only ever rises: it appears to hold, but in truth it decays.
What the Law of Entropy Increase Is
— Erwin Schrödinger · What Is Life? (1944)
Origin: The second law of thermodynamics tells us that the disorder (entropy) of an isolated system only increases, never spontaneously decreases — hot water always cools, a room always grows messy. Schrödinger carried this into the realm of life: life is "locally anti-entropic," holding off decay by continuously importing negentropy (energy and order).
Prigogine's addition: when an open system moves far from equilibrium, it can self-organize into new order through "dissipative structures" — entropy is not fate; as long as a system stays open and keeps importing, disorder can be converted into order of a higher kind. The individual, the family, the enterprise, and the nation all obey the same principle.
How Disorder Forms
Only Consuming · Never Importing
Source of DivisionFormation: energy spent without being replenished — late nights draining health, earning without learning, extracting without cultivating: the system runs at a deficit, and an energy deficit is the fuel of entropy.
Only Taking · Never Tending
The Sacrificed TermFormation: a relationship is a "dissipative structure" — without the input of communication and giving, it cools: family silence, team alienation, trust overdrawn, S's disorder raises the cost of every collaboration, and confusion spreads in silence.
Only Repeating · Never Renewing
The Hidden CostFormation: habits, processes and institutions, once they stop being renewed, degrade from "order" into "shackles" — procrastination, rigid bureaucracy, decaying institutions: when T fails, the system loses self-correction and entropy accelerates.
Four Levels Replayed
Without Learning or Training, One "Slowly Goes to Seed"
Procrastination, late nights, endless scrolling — the comfort zone is a hothouse of entropy: no input, only decline.
The room grows messier, the body weaker, skills duller — once a person stops importing negentropy (learning, training, discipline), capability and health decline on their own; procrastination is not character, it is the system sliding toward disorder.
Build micro-order through "daily work": three small habits — reading, exercise, review (S's input of order), keeping body and mind far from equilibrium — discipline is not asceticism, it is the pipeline that keeps negentropy flowing into life.
Without Communication or Company, a Home Turns Cold
Everyone on their own phone, nothing said at the dinner table — intimacy left untended drifts apart.
A family is a classic "dissipative structure": only with the continuous input of giving and communication can warmth be maintained; once everyone goes their own way and words go unspoken, misunderstanding and indifference accumulate on their own — many families do not "suddenly break," they show it only after ten years of accumulated entropy.
Do "work" on the relationship regularly: set fixed family time, talk before bed, cook together (S's continuous input) — warmth is not a stock, it is running water that must flow daily.
Without Innovation or Reform, the "Big-Company Disease" Grows by Itself
Bloated processes, department walls, fiefdoms — an organization that stops renewing stiffens.
Once an enterprise loses external competition and internal renewal, hierarchies swell and bureaucracy grows on its own (T fails); assessment values only short-term numbers (E takes) while culture and trust are set aside (S cools) — the larger the scale, the faster the entropy: this is the physical root of the "big-company disease."
Keep injecting "negentropy" into the organization: open competition (E's pressure), trust toward the front line (S's confidence), slimming the structure (T's renewal) — good companies do not lack entropy; they turn entropy into the fuel of evolution.
Without Reform or Openness, Dynasties Run Their Cycle
Institutional decay, exhausted vitality — the cycle of history is, in essence, the law of institutional entropy.
The rise-and-fall cycle of successive dynasties is, in essence, institutional entropy: a new dynasty opens and advances (negentropy abundant); in its middle and late periods it closes and stiffens (negentropy cut off), extraction (E) continues while the people's hearts (S) and innovation (T) drain away — once institutions close, disorder grows from within, and the dynasty gives way.
Keep the system open: reform and opening, institutional innovation, self-renewal (T's continuous updating) — a system that dares to correct itself can convert entropy into evolutionary thrust.
Mirrors in Today's World
An untended desk is messy within three days — not laziness, but entropy; one tidying and order returns.
A week lying flat and energy sags; three days of exercise and vigor returns — negentropy in, effect immediate.
Friends never contacted slowly drift away — a relationship without input naturally flows out.
Unrenewed knowledge depreciates — if cognition does not keep up, it falls behind.
What the Books Confirm
"Living matter feeds on negentropy" — to exist is to resist entropy; to be alive is to keep working; importing order is life support, giving up on input is withering.
The theory of dissipative structures: an open system far from equilibrium can self-organize new order out of chaos — entropy is not the end; evolution can be born from disorder.
Habits are "micro-institutions against entropy": a 1% input of order each day accumulates into immense negentropy over time — good habits make a person a system that keeps working.
The Remedy: A New Connotation of Money
— The Law of Value Conservation · The Way Out
Resisting entropy is not about eliminating disorder, but about keeping the system open and continuously importing: energy shifts from "only consuming" to "replenishing as it spends" (E); relationships shift from "only taking" to "tending diligently" (S); order shifts from "only repeating" to "constantly renewing" (T).
The new connotation of money — let currency carry three values at once:
· Economic value E: every yuan corresponds to real goods and services created, ending "printing without producing";
· Social value S: currency circulates on trust — rewarding the tending of relationships, honest cooperation, and mutual care;
· Time value T: money is a promise across generations — learning, innovation, green growth and continuity are measured, encouraging us to "work for the future."
When money measures E, S and T at once, every act of learning, every act of giving, every reform is seen, measured and rewarded — the division formula loses its ground, negentropy becomes the new currency, and the virtuous cycle is triggered.
The Virtuous Cycle: Three-Way Win
| Player | The Virtuous Cycle under the New Connotation of Money | Values |
|---|---|---|
| Nation | Openness and reform, institutions ever renewed → vitality abundant, order rising → enduring peace | T + S |
| Enterprise | Continuous innovation, trust tended → organization ordered, business enduring → anti-entropic growth | E + S + T |
| Individual | Learning and training, relationships tended → body and mind ordered, life compounding → sustained work | All three |
Twin-Blossom Insights
Wealth is "ordered energy." Accumulated but untended, wealth also depreciates by entropy; only continuous learning and careful allocation keep money ordered and compounding.
Feeling is "running water," not "a stock." A relationship without input will finally grow cold; one greeting, one act of listening a day is negentropy delivered to those you love.
The individual's f(m)×f(h)×f(t) and the nation's E×S×T are one and the same thing: only the continuous input of three values is the multiplication that resists entropy — openness, work, renewal: the common lesson of persons and of ages.
All things drift toward entropy; only work can swim against the current.
Energy replenished, relationships warm, institutions renewed — the three continuously input, and this is the formula of anti-entropy;
creation, trust, continuity — three values measured together, is the underlying code of the three-way win for nation, enterprise and individual.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What does the law of entropy increase mean in daily life?
A: An isolated system inevitably drifts toward disorder — rooms grow messy, bodies decline, relationships cool, institutions decay. But as long as a system stays open and keeps importing "negentropy" (learning, exercise, communication, reform), it can maintain — even raise — its order.
Q: Why does "the harder I work, the more exhausted I am" — is that entropy?
A: Output without input is a deficit-driven entropy. The remedy is not "work harder" but "replenish as you spend" — learning to replenish cognition, rest to replenish the body, tending to replenish relationships.
Q: What does the "new connotation of money" mean for ordinary people?
A: It lets money measure economic, social and time value at once. At the personal level this is the micro formula — do not let the chase for income drain your health, your relationships, or your long-term accumulation; keep f(h) and f(t), and your life earns compound interest.