Where there is a trade-off, there is a limit. Imagine: “I can get a little more done if I sleep a little less, waking up just a little bit earlier. That worked well! Maybe I’ll try waking up a little earlier still… Yes, that worked, too! Maybe even a little earlier…” In a trade-off situation, there comes a point when the counteracting effects negate the gains of continuing change, and change comes to a halt.
An equilibrium point like this, lacking in substantial change, can be recognized wherever things are “stuck.” Any system that changes—and that derives a net benefit from that change—will continue changing. Both the virtuous cycle and its reverse, the vicious cycle, are examples of this kind of self-encouraging change. But once the contrary action of a trade-off increases to match and undermine the increase in benefit, change stops. The world can be seen as a collection of systems that spend much of their time stuck, each occasionally breaking out of the conditions of its present trade-off (new rules?) and reinitiating change until the next trade-off becomes increasingly relevant, limiting the system and guiding it to a new position where it is again stuck.