I just passed the halfway point of my 30 day blog challenge, and something I have noticed is that... a few of the posts have been really good... a few have been, frankly, pretty bad (by my standards) and most of them have been pretty much OK.

The 80/20 rule tells me this kind of skewed result is pretty much inevitable, but I still find it interesting. The cyclical nature of things. Natural ups and downs. Ebb and flow. Things like that.

Anyway, my brother pointed out something very interesting to me this morning:

In Swedish, the words for “dependence” and “addiction” is the same word.

I find that fascinating.

Because in a lot of cases, that is precisely what it is.

For example, most people are dependent on other people approving of them in order to feel good about themselves.

I never made this connection when I wrote my book, but in it I said that most people are “validation junkies.”

Literally addicted to validation. And when people who are used to being validated don’t get it, they will sometimes go to extreme lengths in order to get it. EXACTLY like any other type of addict.

Take away their “shot” of validation and they react exactly like an alcoholic does when you snatch the bottle out of their hands.

Most people are also dependent on outside stimulus to entertain themselves. A few days ago I posted about this “addiction to stimulation.”

Facebook are closing in on a billion users... not because it’s a place to connect with long-lost friends... but, I think, because it’s a stimulation and validation machine... with built in social proof.

Everything we crave.

Could you go a full month without stimulating yourself? No Facebook, no YouTube, no blogs, no email, no movies, no TV. No nothing.

What if you had to produce things for a full month without consuming things?

Something to think about.

And maybe... try. See what happens.

- Linus