Activation Energy Explains Everything—From Fires to Friendships
Activation Energy is a good model for a lot of things
The author explores activation energy as a universal metaphor, from starting fires and moving furniture to neuron firing and friendship dynamics. They argue that many life situations—like initiating difficult conversations, exercising, or writing essays—are governed by the threshold of energy required to start versus sustain an activity. The piece encourages readers to spend a week viewing the world through this lens, examining what costs little or much energy, and where activation energies are set unexpectedly high.
There’s momentum coming out of basically anything, and you either sustain it, or it fades, and typically starting over from scratch requires much more effort than keeping it going.