scientifics

I recently discovered Caesura Letters, a daily subscription newsletter with some great insight for the day.

Inertia seems counterintuitive. If you kick a ball, that ball actually now ‘wants’ to keep moving forever. Literally, the ball’s mass will carry it indefinitely, and indeed it would move forever, except that it encounters a whole bunch of other external forces (gravity, friction, among other resistance). The result is a fairly short-lived ride.

I sometimes wonder if human ambition is governed by an equivalent kind of inertia. Think of the forces that incite ‘momentum’ in us: the desire to grow stronger communities, build better businesses, and create more ethical societies. What if the trajectory of these forces was indefinite? What if the movement of our ambitions was in fact limitless?

What if the only ‘limit’ to human ambition is the friction, resistance, and gravity we face along the way?

Reading this immediately made me think of Aaron Mahnke’s Frictionless.

Whether it’s the inertia in an object or inertia in your life, friction slows things down. I think one of the best things you can do for yourself is to regularly sit down and think of any sources of friction in your life and how you can alleviate them. It’s a constantly evolving beast, and once you develop a habit to figure out ways to tackle its slowdowns, you will find that many things in life go more smoothly.