Pushing the limits! – How much is too much?

I dare do all that may become a man; who dares do more is none.

-          William Shakespeare - Macbeth Act 1.

I bought a laptop somewhere before two years. It was fast at the start, but the more programs and stuff it got loaded onto it, the more slower it got. The more slower it got, the more desperate I got, every time I switched it on.

It's just that too much crap got over it over a period of time. Software I didn’t even use anymore was still on the hard drive. So much shit got accumulated and it was one hell of a mess to start correcting. So, I did a very easy thing. I formatted it.

Got a fresh version of windows running and then installed the necessary software only whenever it was needed.  However I still think that over a period of time, more crap is still going to get accumulated and thus will go out of control once again. I can say that much confidently; the crap in the making.

When I run too many applications at the same time, too many processes ran, overheating the system and resulting in an increased fan speed, unresponsive applications and crashes.

I think that my mind turns into crap from time to time too. I just can't help it. I know yours does too, so don’t give me that look. After about half a day, depending on the activities I am engaged in, it slowly starts turning into crap.

Only after a good set of sleep, am I able to get rid of these lags that come up.  When too many processes are already running, it is unfair to load your brain with more. The thought lags, lacks motivation and confidence and simply isn’t efficient enough. More horrible than that, your brain gets used to this feeling and follows this trace of sluggish working even when you are fresh in the morning.

One thing other that sleep, that has helped me clear away all these processes is to focus on something different. If I am unable to play the licks on the guitar for some reason, I don’t sit with it, I go outside hit the punching bag a couple of times, and when I do that, nothing else matters other than me and the bag, and then after a hour, I come back to the guitar and I start fresh.

It is like killing the process and starting it all over again. I know all of us have started software that has turned unresponsive once or twice, and no matter how long we wait, the software won’t come out of the hung state. It is better to shut it down completely and start it from scratch.

While training, Sprinters are not asked to run continuously, when they are tired. They run with full speed, and when they feel their energy drain off, they stop, regain the energy and then they run with full speed until their next energy drain happens. Over a period of time, they are able to increase their running time in-between the drains. That's how powerful sprinters are made. If a person keeps running and running after he gets tired, he won't be able to put in a full effort and his muscles learn to work in that half-assed methodology of running in tiredness.

 Entropy as you had already studied in physics is a measure of disorderness in the universe. The systems which run in the least entropy are the most efficient and the most stable. The Systems on the other hand which run in high entropy are highly unstable and are least efficient. If you don’t understand what I am saying refer to your physics book on the proper definition and equation on entropy.  There is more to it than what your teacher told you about ;)

So, when the sprinter trains and continues to run even when he is out of energy, he is developing high entropy, which in turn makes him more unstable and least efficient. Remember, entropy increases when you try to accomplish things more than what resources are naturally available for. Example, a wheel when rolled down a slope uses its internal energy to come down; this internal energy is just the result of gravity pulling it down. But when a motor is used to bring the vehicle down, the process speeds up but there is an increase in the entropy of the system.

The same thing happens when you try to move a wheel or a vehicle, up a slope. It is just that at this time, the energy required to move it slowly manually would be way lesser than using a motor to move it. The more energy that is used to do a work, the more is the entropy.

Entropy can never be brought down. It can only be maintained the same or increased further.

If you have a dust in your room and if you clean it, you throw the dust outside the window.  You can now call your room clean because the remainder of the world can now afford to take more shit than your room when you compare the shit with the area in which it is held. Get my point?

When the sprinter trains in the other way, the better way, by stopping when he is out of energy and resting, he runs in the least entropy. He is stable and more efficient that way. He develops more internal energy, which is with him all the time, which is the ability to sprint for a longer distance, than a normal person.

Just thought I’d let the world know.

PS: Muscle cars rock!