When a new road opens in a city, traffic jams can worsen — a traffic paradox once blamed on driver selfishness. But an ant colony, acting as a single well-oiled machine, falls into the same trap. When scouts find a short trail to food, the whole colony surges toward it, as if into the funnel of a black hole that sucks everyone in, yet speed drops from overcrowding. The astounding thing: even stuck in a jam for hours, ants won't switch to a slightly longer but clear path: their 'shorter is better' instinct proves stronger than real benefit. That same blind optimism clogs water pipes and computer networks. It's entropy at work — the inevitable rise of disorder even in perfectly tuned systems. Understanding this helps design networks so they don't get snarled in their own ant jam.