find your ohm’s law

finding the friction that moves you instead of breaking you.

i am sitting in a workshop when someone starts talking about circuits, to be precise — integrated circuits. but for some reason, my brain emphasizes on the term circuit. and i am back in science class. i remember making a simple circuit using potato or paper, to learn about conducting and non-conducting materials. then later we learnt about drawing a circuit diagram. at some point resistance was introduced in the circuit diagram. i remember solving series and parallel circuit problems, arguing with friends after the exam about whether the resistance was in parallel or series. i don’t know why i remember all this. but a part of me is glad that i remember all this because i can now apply the laws of physics to a situation in life and come up with my own philosophy. it has helped me find logic in the otherwise emotional chaos of my life.

so today when i heard the word circuit i started scribbling in my notebook: resistance in circuit is essential for controlling electric current and resistance in life is essential for finding direction, purpose, and balance.

and once you see it, it is hard to unsee.

if we don’t have resistance in a circuit, there is absolute freedom. that means uncontrollable electricity. no resistance. nothing to slow it down or shape it. just current running wild. it sounds appealing. do whatever you want whenever you want, that kind of thing.
and one might think that if we have absolute freedom we will become powerful. but instead we might become aimless. there can be an overwhelming anxiety. energy without direction just burns off. you see this in people who have every option available to them and still end up doing nothing, because nothing is pushing back against them. there is no friction. some resistance is necessary to channel energy in the right direction. this is true in both circuit wiring and in human brain wiring.

with no resistor, fragile components of a circuit break. the moment too much current runs through a part that was never designed to take that load, it breaks. it burns out. this is why we have fuse. to protect the device.
people work the same way, except we don’t have a fuse. and if you keep saying yes to everything, you will burn out. it is that simple.
resistance to saying yes all the time protects your mental health. saying no to an extra project, or an extra favor, is not you being difficult; it is the resistor doing its job. a lot of people treat saying yes as proof of their value, and they run themselves into the ground because of it.

now if we look at the other side, having too much resistance leads to less current or no current at all. you can keep pushing and nothing will move. the components are safe, but nothing happens either. all that voltage just sitting there with nowhere to go. technically, the circuit is fine but also completely useless.
people work like this too. too much resistance and you stop taking things on. you say no to the thing that scares you a little, no to anything with some risk in it, and you tell yourself you are being careful. but you are just standing still. no deadline pushing you. no responsibility pulling on you. nothing to answer to. it can feel like freedom, the same way having no resistance does, but it is the opposite trap. one version burns you out. this one keeps you exactly where you are. safe and still and going nowhere.

and yes, i do realize that in some cases the resistance is created for you by other people, be it parents or society. i highly recommend using all your drive to overcompensate that resistance.
break that circuit and pick your own.
pick your own voltage and pick your own resistance.
do not let anyone else run your circuit.

DO NOT LET ANYONE ELSE RUN YOUR CIRCUIT.

so you see, resistance is not the enemy in either direction. too little of it, and you have chaos. too much of it, and nothing moves. and this is why you need to find the balance. this is why you need find your ohm’s law.
the actual equation is quite simple: V = I*R (voltage equals current times resistance). the math is not important, the relationship is. voltage is your ambition. current is your action. resistance is the challenge you face, or the no’s you say. all three are connected, and all three are necessary.

if your ambition is high but you have no resistance at all, because you say yes to everything, you get current that spikes past what you can handle. that is burnout, plain and simple. if your resistance is too high and you say no to everything to avoid every challenge, or someone says no to you for everything, then no current flows at all. nothing happens. you stay safe and you stay still. you need to learn how to balance. not too much resistance, but also not too little. just enough friction to keep the energy pointed somewhere useful, but not so much that the whole thing stalls out.

and this looks different for everyone. it is supposed to look different. so you can have your own version of it. the ambition, action, and resistance are variables, but the law is the same. somebody with a lot of drive need more boundaries, and more no’s to avoid burnout. somebody who tends to hold back might need less resistance, and fewer reasons to stay comfortable, to keep them moving. and this is why everyone has their own version of it. you know who you are and what you need. the equation is the same, the numbers are different because you are different.

and let me tell that you will not get this balance right immediately. it takes some trial and error. you need to test the same way an engineer would test a circuit before trusting it under real load. over time you start to notice the pattern. you learn where your own resistance needs to go up, and where it needs to come down.
remember, the goal is not to remove resistance from your life completely. that just leads back to the aimless, uncontrollable version of yourself, all voltage and no direction.
the goal is also not to max out your resistance and avoid everything that pushes back on you. that just leads to a life where nothing moves.

the goal is to find the amount of resistance that lets your energy travel somewhere without wrecking you along the way.

and that is your ohm’s law…
and nobody else can hand it to you…
because nobody else is running your circuit…
you have to test it… adjust it… and learn it for yourself…

…..

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dear reader, thank you for reading. this essay is part of a series where i use laws of science to explain a situation of life. it began with twin primes. then came heisenberg, and pauli, and schrödinger, and doppler. and now we are ohm’s law. i'm planning to keep writing this series, where i relate science and life.
other than that, i sometimes write prose, poems and personal essays about pretty much anything under the sky. as the name suggests, i just post scraps from my brain.

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