Vox

Leitura de 15 min

Mental Models for Finding Balance

Summary

The episode explores the concept of balance, challenging simplistic notions like equal time allocation. The host, Jonathan Cattralli, argues that balance is a dynamic, context-dependent problem without a single solution, often meaning something ‘acceptable’ or ‘fair’ within a given situation.

He introduces two scientific models for understanding balance. The first is thermodynamic equilibrium, where systems with different energy levels (like heat) naturally move toward a middle ground. Applied to life, this suggests feeling ‘unbalanced’ might mean holding too much energy in one area (like work) and needing to redistribute it, though this is an oversimplification as life involves many competing forces, not just two.

The second model is chemical equilibrium, where specific elements bond in certain proportions based on their characteristics. This model illustrates that balance isn’t just about quantities but about the right ‘type’ of components bonding well. For instance, burnout might not be solved by simply reducing work (a thermodynamic approach) but by changing the type of work or finding different satisfiers like appreciation (a chemical approach).

The host concludes that finding balance is complex because human experience involves many variables. Intuition might point toward solutions like taking time off, but the real need might be a qualitative change. The goal is to apply these models to move beyond simplistic scales or calendars and understand balance as a resolution tailored to one’s unique, evolving context.

Recommendations

Podcasts

  • Spec Network shows — Mentioned at the end, the Spec Network hosts shows built for designers and developers who want to level up in their careers.

Tools

  • Headspin — A mobile testing platform that unifies automated testing, performance monitoring, and user experience analytics for applications on any device and network. The sponsor segment highlights its global device infrastructure and AI-powered analysis.

Topic Timeline

  • 00:00:00 — Introduction to the concept of balance — The episode opens by questioning what ‘balance’ truly means, noting its use in contexts like work, politics, and judgment. The host, Jonathan Cattralli, states the goal is to help developers find clarity and purpose, and introduces the episode’s focus: exploring two models to understand the nuances of balance.
  • 00:01:54 — Common metaphors for balance: tightrope, scale, calendar — The host describes common mental images of balance: a tightrope walker (where a misstep is catastrophic), a scale (seeking equal weight), and a calendar (judging balance by time allocation). He then transitions to introduce two models from the hard sciences as more nuanced frameworks.
  • 00:02:52 — First model: Thermodynamic balance (entropy) — The host explains thermodynamic balance as the tendency for systems with different energy levels (e.g., temperature) to move toward equilibrium. He relates this to personal life, suggesting feeling unbalanced might mean holding ‘too much energy’ in one area (like work) and needing to redistribute it, akin to doing less to find a middle ground.
  • 00:05:57 — Balance is dynamic and context-dependent — Using the example of life changes like marriage and children, the host illustrates that balance is not static. Available energy for work shifts, meaning the definition of balance changes over time. He notes balance can also be a shared cultural concept, not purely individual.
  • 00:07:31 — Sponsor message from Headspin — A sponsored segment for Headspin, a mobile testing and monitoring platform. The ad describes its features like automated testing, performance monitoring, user experience analytics, and a global device infrastructure with AI-powered analysis.
  • 00:08:42 — Second model: Chemical equilibrium — The host introduces chemical equilibrium, where elements bond in specific quantities based on their characteristics (e.g., H2O). The key takeaway is that this model shows equilibrium is about the right components bonding well, not just about equal amounts. Substituting a different element changes the equilibrium or prevents bonding entirely.
  • 00:11:09 — Applying the chemical model to work and life — The host applies the chemical model, arguing that finding balance isn’t just about changing amounts (like work hours) but may require changing the ‘type’ of component. For example, throwing money at a problem may not create equilibrium if the need is for appreciation or different work. Burnout might require a ‘chemical’ solution (changing work type) rather than a ‘thermodynamic’ one (just reducing volume).
  • 00:12:13 — Conclusion: Balance requires exploring beyond intuition — The host concludes that balance is complex because human experience involves many variables. Our intuition (e.g., ‘take a week off’) might not address the root cause if the issue is qualitative (wrong work type) rather than quantitative (too much work). The episode encourages using these models to find unique, context-appropriate resolutions.

Episode Info

  • Podcast: Developer Tea
  • Author: Jonathan Cutrell
  • Category: Technology Business Careers Society & Culture
  • Published: 2020-05-25T09:00:00Z
  • Duration: 00:13:42

References

Podcast Info

Transcript

[00:00:00] What does it mean when we say balance?

[00:00:08] We use this term when we’re talking about our work.

[00:00:11] We use it when we’re talking about our political views.

[00:00:16] We use it when we’re talking about how we judge other people.

[00:00:20] We use the term balance when we talk about how we should treat other people.

[00:00:25] And we certainly use it when we talk about decision making.

[00:00:29] But what exactly is balance?

[00:00:31] And who decides when something is in a good balance or if it’s unbalanced?

[00:00:37] In today’s episode, we’re going to talk about two models of thinking that can help us understand

[00:00:43] some nuances about balance.

[00:00:46] My name is Jonathan Cattralli listening to Developer Tea, and my goal on this show is

[00:00:49] to help driven developers like you find clarity, perspective, and purpose in their careers.

[00:00:55] And here’s the reality.

[00:00:58] Most of the time when we use that word, what we mean is something acceptable.

[00:01:06] Something that feels peaceful, for example, when we use it in the frame of work-life balance.

[00:01:13] Or something that we generally agree is fair when we’re talking about the justice system.

[00:01:20] And defining that balance is a dynamic problem that doesn’t have a singular solution.

[00:01:27] For example, balancing a workload, well, it’s going to look different for different people

[00:01:33] based on their capacity, maybe based on what phase of life they’re in.

[00:01:39] And so balance has no singular representation.

[00:01:44] It is, like most things, relative to your context.

[00:01:49] But there are different ways that we achieve balance.

[00:01:54] You can at first imagine someone balancing on a tightrope.

[00:02:00] The idea being that any misstep will throw them out of balance.

[00:02:06] And that once the tightrope walker is out of balance, there is no recovering because,

[00:02:11] well, they’ve fallen.

[00:02:14] Another mental image you can bring up is that of a scale where you weigh down one side

[00:02:21] and you try to weigh down the other one in equal proportion.

[00:02:26] Many times when we think about balance as it relates to our personal lives, the picture

[00:02:30] that comes up is more like a calendar.

[00:02:34] And if you were to scan across that calendar, the places where you’re spending time, if

[00:02:40] they are heavily weighted in one area, you may feel unbalanced.

[00:02:46] But I want to talk about two models of balance that come from the hard sciences.

[00:02:52] Specifically, I want to talk about thermodynamic balance or entropy balance and chemical balance.

[00:03:01] First let’s talk about thermodynamic balance for a minute.

[00:03:05] Thermodynamic balance is the balance of essentially temperature.

[00:03:10] And temperature is a measure of energy.

[00:03:15] Higher amounts of heat means there’s more energy and lower amounts of heat means there’s

[00:03:20] less energy.

[00:03:22] And generally speaking, when you put something that has high energy near something that has

[00:03:27] low energy, they will interact.

[00:03:30] They’re not going to stay separate from each other.

[00:03:33] But instead, that kind of system, if you were to, let’s say, create a vacuum and have one

[00:03:40] area of the vacuum, half of the vacuum is high energy and the other half of the vacuum

[00:03:44] is low energy, those two fields of particles, whatever they are, air or water or whatever,

[00:03:52] will tend to move towards some equilibrium.

[00:03:57] It’s important to note that another law of thermodynamics is that no energy is lost or

[00:04:04] created in a given system.

[00:04:06] So this is all theoretical.

[00:04:09] If you had something that had, let’s say, a hundred units of energy and something that

[00:04:14] had 50 units of energy and they were in equal proportion to each other, then you would end

[00:04:19] up with 75 units of energy on average across that whole field.

[00:04:24] But technically, the law of thermodynamics that we’re referencing here is that things

[00:04:29] will tend to move towards an absolute zero, which essentially means that there’s no difference.

[00:04:36] There’s no potential energy in the system available.

[00:04:41] So why are we talking about this law of thermodynamics and what does it have to do with your kind

[00:04:47] of sense of balance as a person or in your work?

[00:04:51] There’s a lot of ways that we can apply this concept to our lives, applying this model

[00:04:56] of thinking to our lives.

[00:04:58] When you are feeling a sense of tension, when you feel what you would label as unbalanced,

[00:05:07] it’s very likely that you have this kind of juxtaposition where you are holding too much

[00:05:15] energy, and we’ll use that term kind of loosely right now, where you are doing too much, for

[00:05:21] example, and the equilibrium that you need to find is by doing less.

[00:05:27] This is an oversimplified example because in most systems, balance or equilibrium is

[00:05:35] not found simply between two competing forces.

[00:05:40] We don’t live in a vacuum where you have only two kind of fields that are trying to find

[00:05:46] equilibrium.

[00:05:47] We live in a much more complex environment with new variables being introduced every

[00:05:53] day.

[00:05:54] I’ll give you a very simple example of this.

[00:05:57] Before I was married and before I had children, I had more available energy to put towards

[00:06:04] working.

[00:06:06] When I say working, I mean learning, doing things on the side, all of the extra energy

[00:06:12] that I now am putting towards my relationships with my family.

[00:06:17] This seems like an obvious example, but what this means is that balance has a different

[00:06:22] definition for me now.

[00:06:25] Balance means something different than it used to.

[00:06:28] And this isn’t always purely on an individual level.

[00:06:31] Sometimes balance is a shared concept in a given culture or a given context.

[00:06:38] We do have some shared limits as humans, but we also have shared culture that changes our

[00:06:44] personal definitions or personal perceptions of what it means to work with balance.

[00:06:51] Most of the time when we talk about balance as it relates to our work, we’re talking

[00:06:54] about what proportion of our time are we spending on work and the modifier that we use, let’s

[00:07:03] say as an employer, is we provide time off.

[00:07:09] We provide holidays.

[00:07:12] That’s one of the benefits that an employer might provide, but sometimes, sometimes the

[00:07:18] amount of time off has nothing to do with the balance at all.

[00:07:25] We’re going to talk about a different type of balance right after we talk about today’s

[00:07:29] sponsor.

[00:07:31] Today’s episode is sponsored by Headspin.

[00:07:33] Headspin for mobile unifies end-to-end automated testing, full stack performance monitoring

[00:07:38] and user experience analytics for any application, native or web running on any device and any

[00:07:45] network anywhere in the world.

[00:07:48] Headspin uses their patented global device infrastructure that offers real SIM enabled

[00:07:54] devices on real Wi-Fi and carrier networks with 24 seven remote access.

[00:08:00] In addition, artificial intelligence powered analysis track user experience metrics and

[00:08:06] KPIs over time.

[00:08:08] You can track things like cold and warm starts, errors, crashes, response times, audio and

[00:08:13] video quality, even biometric responsiveness.

[00:08:18] Pretty fancy.

[00:08:19] Go and check it out.

[00:08:20] Head over to Headspin.io to get started today.

[00:08:22] That’s Headspin.io.

[00:08:23] Thanks again to Headspin for sponsoring today’s episode of Developer Tea.

[00:08:29] So we’ve been talking about finding balance and you can think about this in terms of the

[00:08:35] scientific term equilibrium.

[00:08:38] So what exactly is equilibrium?

[00:08:42] We’ve already talked about one type of equilibrium where you balance the amount of energy spent,

[00:08:47] right?

[00:08:48] This is the basic laws of thermodynamics where you have two fields of energy.

[00:08:54] One is high and one is low.

[00:08:56] They’re going to tend to mix to try to find an equilibrium, something in the middle.

[00:09:01] And humans tend to do this with the amount of work we’re willing to do.

[00:09:05] We also do this in a bunch of other ways that are abstract from specific types of energy.

[00:09:11] But equilibrium is not just about finding midpoint.

[00:09:16] Equilibrium and balance is more about resolution than it is about equality.

[00:09:23] And when I say equality here, I’m thinking more in terms of balancing that scale out.

[00:09:28] The second model of thinking as it relates to equilibrium that I want to bring up comes

[00:09:34] from chemistry.

[00:09:36] Two different elements.

[00:09:39] We’re going to keep it as simple as possible.

[00:09:41] Two different elements given in the right quantities might bind to each other.

[00:09:49] Without getting into the details, the simplest explanation for this is that it depends on

[00:09:57] the characteristics of that element.

[00:09:59] For example, H2O, two molecules of hydrogen happens to bind with oxygen quite well.

[00:10:08] This particular bond is actually what’s called a covalent bond.

[00:10:13] But the specifics here matter less than the overarching concept, which is that certain

[00:10:18] elements in certain quantities will bond well together.

[00:10:24] And this is an example of equilibrium.

[00:10:28] And this equilibrium is, in some ways, quite similar to the equilibrium that we would

[00:10:34] find in thermodynamics.

[00:10:36] But here’s the model that I want you to take away from this.

[00:10:39] Once again, we’re not talking about elements here.

[00:10:42] We’re using this as a model for applying to higher level concepts and thinking.

[00:10:47] And that is that when you have chemical bonds or when you have two elements that attract

[00:10:54] and combine well, substituting a different element provides a different type of equilibrium

[00:11:02] or perhaps doesn’t bond at all and there’s no equilibrium to be found.

[00:11:09] This is what happens, for example, when you try to throw money at a problem.

[00:11:15] All of us have a particular limit where money doesn’t really solve our equilibrium problem.

[00:11:24] When you’re trying to find balance, it’s not just about amounts.

[00:11:28] It’s not just about changing the amount of work that you do, for example, but it may

[00:11:34] also be about the type of work that you do.

[00:11:40] It may be about something totally different entirely, like appreciation from your coworkers

[00:11:46] or from your manager.

[00:11:49] Finding balance is a complex subject because we aren’t talking about simple systems.

[00:11:55] We aren’t talking about simple values that we need to play with.

[00:12:00] We’re talking about the whole world of experience for us as engineers.

[00:12:06] And so it makes sense to explore different ways of trying to achieve balance.

[00:12:13] Our intuition in this particular way doesn’t always serve us right.

[00:12:17] Our intuition might say that I need a week off to feel right again or to avoid burning

[00:12:23] out.

[00:12:24] But once you come back from that week, did anything really change?

[00:12:28] It’s possible.

[00:12:29] It’s possible that the week really does recharge you and get you ready for work again.

[00:12:34] But it may also be the case that your intuition is telling you to take a week off.

[00:12:41] But the real solution here is not a thermodynamic solution.

[00:12:45] It’s a chemical solution.

[00:12:48] That your burnout is not a result of too much work, but rather the wrong type of work.

[00:12:55] Thanks so much for listening to today’s episode of Developer Tea.

[00:12:57] I hope that you are finding balance in your own unique way in this particularly stressful

[00:13:04] time for many people.

[00:13:07] I hope that you are able to find balance through that time.

[00:13:10] Thank you so much for listening.

[00:13:11] Thank you again to Headspend for sponsoring today’s episode.

[00:13:14] Head over to Headspend.io to get started today.

[00:13:17] This episode and every other episode of Developer Tea is a part of the Spec Network.

[00:13:21] Head over to Spec.fm to learn more and find other shows that are built specifically for

[00:13:26] designers and developers who want to level up in their careers.

[00:13:30] Today’s episode was produced by Sarah Jackson.

[00:13:31] My name is Jonathan Cottrell and until next time, enjoy your tea.

Visão de gráfico