Entropy and inflation are two constants in life, both slowly eroding your physical and financial strength over time. Success in life comes to those who triumph over entropy and inflation.
Entropy, or increasing disorder, slowly brings about chaos in our lives as we age. Inaction and neglect of our physical forms brings about this entropy even faster, stripping us of the agency and power to improve our circumstances.
Inflation, or the reduction in purchasing power due to increases in the money supply, is also outside of our control. If left unchallenged, both our income and our savings will be unable to keep up with changes in prices.
Both of these negative forces seek to destroy us, and we must live and thrive in spite of them.
Welcome to the Investing Series – my thoughts on how we must create strategies to conquer the inevitable to create a life worth living.
Entropy and inflation go hand in hand, as both seek to rob us of the hard-earned progress we make in the physical and financial realms. But as we continue to save and invest, we also gain the power to overcome their impacts to keep moving forward.
Entropy & Inflation Revisited
I’ve discussed both entropy and inflation in my first article in the Investing Series. If you haven’t read that article yet, I strongly encourage you to do so. The examples provided there are assumed knowledge from here on.
In summary, entropy is the “the increase in disorder across the universe over time”. When applied to us as individuals, entropy relates to the slow destruction of our bodies – our own physical universe – over time.
Eventually, we will depart our physical existence to whatever comes next. And every day entropy moves us closer towards that goal as our bodies slowly degrade. Until that time comes, we must do what we can to ensure we live a good and healthy life in this form.
Inflation is similar to entropy, except instead of eroding the power of our bodies, it erodes the power of our finances. Inflation occurs when the purchasing power of your money is reduced. This happens in two ways: when the prices of goods increases, and when additional money is created.
Inflation is entropic to your financial situation, rendering it more unstable the longer you go without protecting yourself against it.
We invest our time, money, and effort into ideas and ventures around us every day. Everything we do is an investment into something. Therefore, we need to ensure that our investments don’t allow entropy and inflation to take hold of our lives.
We must ensure that the time we spend, the activities we perform, and the places we store our wealth allow us to triumph over entropy and inflation.
What Happens If We Don’t Triumph Over Entropy and Inflation?
Let’s assume the worst case scenario, and we have allowed entropy and inflation to take hold over us throughout our lives. Our inaction has led to our bodies becoming stiff and our muscles weak. A lack of focus on our financial situation has left our savings eroded in value before they could be fully utilised.
The negative aspects of the years of working hard and saving money have left us powerless, tired, and without focus.
Where exactly have entropy and inflation taken us? What has our inaction allowed us to be pulled towards?
Catastrophic destruction of our health and wealth.
The inability to earn an income or sustain a healthy lifestyle.
Erosion of the value of our life savings.
While this is an extreme example, it’s still true. If taken to their extremes, both entropy and inflation will take everything from us. It’s why mitigating them as soon as possible is essential to succeed and thrive.
An Entropic Society
I believe entropy is present in our society in a manner that’s much more sinister. And I believe this affects more of us than we know.
Entropy is ingrained in the fabric of our society, through overwhelming work pressures, mindless consumption, and the slow grinding of life force from its participants.
Society needs people to be functioning workers and avid consumers. And society has been carefully engineered to ensure that everyone falls into at least one of these categories – ideally both.
I’ve recently learned about a concept that describes this perfectly – the consumtariat. A combination of consumer and proletariat, it refers to working-class people who are locked into cycles of work and consumption. Through the use of advertising and controlled platforms (like social networks), the consumtariat’s primary function is to spend their time and money consuming.
Here’s how I see the consumtariat in modern life. You invest your time and effort into receiving money through traditional employment. Your mind is kept busy by sport results, current events, and whatever else you see on social media1 that doesn’t matter. Your hard-earned money is spent on nothings that don’t solve your real problems: independence, security, love, and meaning. The cycle continues until the labour market determines you are not valuable, you retire, and you can sit on the couch and continue to consume until you die.
What a life.
The Escape
I don’t claim to know what the ideal life is. But I know for a fact it’s not this.
It’s obvious that this type of life is entropic and inflationary by nature. The consumtariat lifestyle revolves around consuming to fill a void. A void carved out by the very society we participate in. One that grows and grows over time as our minds, bodies, and souls are trapped in the endless dance of taxing work and mind-numbing consumption.
This void denies us from becoming who we are meant to be, and denies us from filling that void ourselves.
We become reliant on the system to fill this void.
But as prices continue to outpace wage growth, the walls begin to close around us.
We’re the products in a system meant to serve us.
At least, we will be if we are stripped of our agency, and unable to triumph over entropy and inflation.
Detachment
If we aren’t producing or consuming, society has little use for us. In fact, not fitting into one of these categories makes us problematic entities. It’s easy to see why.
If we’re not trading our time for money, there is no taxation collected for government spending. Without mindlessly consuming media and avoiding advertising, we prevent mega-corporations from productising us. Our time and money goes towards bettering our future, which can be invested to overcome inflation. And by learning skills that allow you to create the life you desire, you stave off entropy through growth of your mind and body.
Avoiding the pitfalls of modern society ensures we avoid the carefully crafted cycle of earning and spending that will destroy us.
An able-bodied free thinker who can invest their time, money, and effort how they see fit is dangerous. You fall outside of traditional means of control. This freedom directly allows you to pursue the things that matter most to you, and allow you to work towards your Highest Self.
Those on the path to the Highest Self triumph over entropy and inflation.
Triumphing Over Entropy
We must commit ourselves to ensuring that our mind, body, and soul are constantly moving forward. How you do this is up to you. All that matters is living a life that allows you to do this.
You must use your savings and investments to create the time necessary for you to take this step.
Entropy of Body
When inactive, the body will suffer. Your muscles will deteriorate, and things that were once easy to you now become a struggle. Part of this is simply getting older, but a lot of this comes from unnatural entropy.
Don’t allow your body to deteriorate faster than it should. Time must be set aside to ensure you are maintaining your physical form. This doesn’t mean trying look like a bodybuilder or a supermodel – it means exercising regularly, building strength, and eating well.
We all age and change, but our health and fitness are paramount to success as we move through life.
Entropy of Mind
I see entropy of the mind in the modern age as a mind that’s full of wisdom but doesn’t use it. We have all seen, done, and learned incredible things that sit in our minds as just another thing we’ve consumed. Social media gives us another avenue by which to acquire knowledge.
The build-up of this knowledge, when unprocessed, makes us feel sluggish and lost. “I know there’s a better path, so why am I not on it?”, you ask yourself.
It’s simply because we live in a society that doesn’t want us to stray from the path it’s laid out before us. The path of the consumtariat.
Consuming new ideas used to be seen as a great thing. Reading books and watching motivational YouTube videos about discipline or philosophy were how I thought I was making progress. But I still felt paralysed thinking about how to start sharing my writing online.
As it turns out, I had everything I needed to begin already. All I was doing by watching that content was filling a cup that was already full.
Continue to take in new ideas, and synthesise them in a way that improves your life. If your mind’s cup is full, use journaling or stream of consciousness writing to expunge the thoughts in your head. This process will help you think through the challenges you face.
Once you’ve clarified your thoughts, take in more information. But don’t languish in overconsumption; it will only serve as an illusion of progress, and burden your mind with thoughts that don’t matter.
Entropy of Soul
Entropy of the soul occurs when we lose sight of what matters.
As we focus on work at the expense of ourselves – often out of necessity – the soul within us begins to falter. Whether it’s a general sense of unease or a depressive cynicism with the status quo, unresolved turmoil within you will begin to boil.
This has affected me while working in stressful, full-time2 roles. I was not living in alignment with how I wanted to. At my lowest point, I couldn’t even articulate what I was working for.
I had little meaning in my life outside of work. My independence was shattered. I wasn’t progressing or growing in my life or my career. The life I was living forced me to be dishonourable to myself. And I was living a lie that everything was fine, as my soul cried out for help.
I had completely disregarded what it meant to live in alignment with myself. I was living as the consumtariat out of inaction, entrapment, and despair. This ultimately led to me quitting my job, taking a career break, and redefining how I approach money, work, and meaning.
Whether you are spiritual or not, you believe in your innate personhood. The fact that you exist and you can understand yourself and your needs is irrefutable. Do not neglect your soul if it calls out to you.
Triumphing Over Inflation
Once we meet our entropic needs, our focus shifts to inflation. What can we do to ensure that we continue to outpace the march of inflation?
Build Wealth
It goes without saying that building wealth is necessary to triumph over inflation. If you rely solely on your income to meet your needs, you risk allowing inflation to deny you what you desire.
The Saving Series outlines in detail how to transition from a spender to a saver, then a saver to an investor. These savings can be used to offset immediate shocks to inflation (such as price increases), but also deployed as investments.
Increase Your Income
Increasing your income is an essential ongoing goal. If your hourly wage rises slower than the rate of new money entering the economy, you are worse off financially – even if the number of dollars in your account goes up.
Do whatever it takes to increase your hourly rate. This is by far the best way to increase your leverage and take back control of your time. With a higher hourly rate, you can control how much you work and also save more money.
Continue to move forward in this manner, taking care to rest your soul along the way.
Invest Wisely
Savings used from the prior steps should be invested in a manner that beats inflation. As I’ve outlined in my strategy for retiring early, you can research assets classes that have outperformed the rate of inflation.
Build a portfolio of assets that is diversified against industry or market risk, at your personal level of risk tolerance.
Focus on the Long Term
Investing is a long game, and we’ll be playing it for the rest of our lives.
You’ll have some winners and some losers. Embrace the experience of both. A well-balanced portfolio will usually stand the test of time and reward you for your commitment.
There is always the chance of failure, or things going wrong. But this plan gives you the flexibility to overcome those challenges. And you need time for compound interest to do its work.
This is a marathon, not a sprint. Quick wins are nice, but don’t let them distract you from outpacing inflation and preserving your wealth.
Closing
Living in a manner that enables us to triumph over entropy and inflation isn’t a nice to have. It’s a necessity.
Without the ability to overcome these forces, we are sapped of our health and wealth. This renders us powerless to confront challenges later in life.
A strategy built around overcoming them allows us to thrive in the modern age, Choose Work We Love, and become our Highest Selves.
Thank you for reading.
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- The erosion of “true social media” – that is, a platform where you connect with and see updates solely from your friends and family – is one of the biggest tragedies of the modern age. Social networks serving up screenshotted posts, junk videos, and viral memes has rendered them nigh unusable. At least they’re addicting, and make a ton of money for their owners. ↩︎
- I hit 70 hours a week at one point. Unsustainable for me. ↩︎