# Contract-Expand cycle Almost everything in the universe works in a contract-expand cycle. As Nick mentions, "This is a useful way to see the world because it puts chaos into perspective and makes it bearable, even understandable." Nick gives the following example: > I used Obsidian for note-taking and wrote a lot of notes for a while (expand), and at some point, I went back to delete and merge notes (contract). Or, take the example of moving apartments. I’d construct boxes and throw stuff all around the house (expand) before being able to pack them neatly into boxes (contract) and before finally taking things out of the boxes to put around the new apartment again (expand). ## References - [[Nick Ang]] (https://www.nickang.com/2022-01-02-my-2021-annual-review/