1) As a young man I spent some time jumping back and forth between being single and being in a relationship. Both states felt stable, like two distinct equilibria.
2) Also as a young man I had friends who pursued higher education and friends who didn’t; then there were those who alternated between the two states, once or twice or more. Perhaps not the best example because college is not an ending state but a beginning stage.
3) I’m reminded of the first two lines in “All My Love” by Led Zeppelin: “should I drop out of my farmer life / to chase a feather in the wind”. Both states, farming and being a merry gypsy traveler are states of equilibrium, in their own way.…
All of my examples are similar, I know. The first thing that struck me upon reading the post was the human aspect of this concept, how a person’s life can have more than one equilibrium, depending on your starting position and trajectory. Bonus below:
1) She breaks up with me! Or vice versa. Or I’m walking down Grosvenor Square and a girl catches my eye, with bells on her fingers and rings on her shoes. That may set my ball rolling toward the hypothetical equilibrium of her arms. I might as well try.
2) COVID-19 pushes classes online and a struggling student decides he should take the leap into the professional world instead of the academic.
3) I think Robert Plant was singing about something similar to my answer for number 1).
1) As a young man I spent some time jumping back and forth between being single and being in a relationship. Both states felt stable, like two distinct equilibria.
2) Also as a young man I had friends who pursued higher education and friends who didn’t; then there were those who alternated between the two states, once or twice or more. Perhaps not the best example because college is not an ending state but a beginning stage.
3) I’m reminded of the first two lines in “All My Love” by Led Zeppelin: “should I drop out of my farmer life / to chase a feather in the wind”. Both states, farming and being a merry gypsy traveler are states of equilibrium, in their own way.…
All of my examples are similar, I know. The first thing that struck me upon reading the post was the human aspect of this concept, how a person’s life can have more than one equilibrium, depending on your starting position and trajectory. Bonus below:
1) She breaks up with me! Or vice versa. Or I’m walking down Grosvenor Square and a girl catches my eye, with bells on her fingers and rings on her shoes. That may set my ball rolling toward the hypothetical equilibrium of her arms. I might as well try.
2) COVID-19 pushes classes online and a struggling student decides he should take the leap into the professional world instead of the academic.
3) I think Robert Plant was singing about something similar to my answer for number 1).