As I wrote in “The natural flow of energy”, I strongly believe that the outcome is greater when energy flows naturally. I am aware that there seems to be a contradiction with the fact that success comes from hard work and perseverance: some would say this is nothing like a natural flow because it involves some fighting.
However, according to my reasoning, the relevant point is that in “The natural flow of energy,” I also mentioned that “it takes a huge amount of personal work to go peacefully this way.” I think a key differentiation here is “awareness” (and here we are again on awareness).
Having self-awareness of where the energy flows better and more naturally has tremendous value because it builds sustainability into the process. When something is sustainable it has more chances of running for a longer time, thus continuously delivering value. Perhaps less intuitive, more solutions are allowed to emerge in case of very complex problems. A “natural flow of energy” is not simple: it takes a lot of work to develop enough awareness so that eventually the natural flow emerges. On the other hand, this work should never resemble a “fight”, especially with oneself, but rather a “peaceful” and ever-dynamic dance, a search for harmonious balance.
There is a principle that seems to emerge from this brain dump, and that is the “Principle of least effort”. As I write this, however, I am not sure that “effort” is the proper word as it might point toward “laziness”, which is not my intention. Although I read on several occasions that many processes - and perhaps evolution as well - can be seen under the lens of energy efficiency, what I mean here is more along the lines of a “Principle of least resistance”, which is the constant search for the path and direction that minimize resistance. This sounds easy at first but, as an example, when it comes to really letting go of something that holds us back, it becomes relatively clear why this is not a simple process.
Interesting coincidence. The night I decided to try to work on this brain dump, I found on YouTube a video from Sabine Hossenfelder where the German theoretical physicist mentions the “Principle of Least Action” [ref]:
δS = 0
Reaching the end of this brain dump, if I had to think about a possible implementation for the “Principle of least resistance” it could be something like:
The more I speak, the less I know
I learn through listening, reading and watching, i.e. by receiving energy and information via sensory stimuli.
Edit. Coming back to this brain dump, I cannot help but add some concepts [ref] that I think are contextual:
The Brachistochrone (from ancient Greek: shortest time) curve is the same shape as the Tautochrone (from ancient Greek: same time) curve; both are cycloids.
Differences in how the Principle of Least Action can be formulated:
Maupertuis - Gives the path (integral over space), energy is fixed across paths but time can vary;
Hamilton - Gives the trajectory (integral over time), energy can vary across trajectories but time is the same
The Lagrangian has some advantages over a description based on forces
The Principle of Least Action does not always provide the true minimum, more like the stationary points
Picture created by the author using GenAI