"Because no system whatsoever creates more work the less it operates" When you're loading a mill, say, a grinding mill in a mine, you want to put enough rocks

"Because no system whatsoever creates more work the less it operates" When you're loading a mill, say, a grinding mill in a mine, you want to put enough rocks to maximize output of the mill against energy use. It's a complex optimization problem as the geometries involved are rather complicated. Occasionally, a mine operator will have the bright idea to decrease energy use by adding more rocks. As they're not very smart, they 'realized' that as they added more rocks, the energy used to spin the mill actually goes down; the mill seems more efficient, as the mill has filled up and the internal movement of rocks creating turbulence inside of it is diminished. There are cases where mills have been filled up entirely with rocks in this way and then they need to be shut down, dug out and repaired. In principle, you are right, but I would offer that it is possible to find corner cases like this where it seems like a system is doing less but achieving more. It's about optimizing and finding balance. The appearance of operation may not actually map to desired outcomes.