I haven't read much about a psychological theory of non-substance addiction similar to this, so here goes writing it up.

The axiom this hypothesis bases itself on is Freud's Pleasure Principle. I think it isn't hard to agree that fear is a most basic emotion in humans, and that fear from pain drives us toward pleasure.

What does the "A.J." stand for? Well the "A." is for Attention, and/or its seemingly more civilised variant Appreciation. One built-in way in humans to achieve freedom from pain seems to me to be the attention of other humans, preferrably ending in some form of deeper understanding. Without it, we feel painfully alone.

As a rule, I suspect, people have built one - or even several - more or less smoothly running inner appreciation engine(s) by the time they reach the end of teenage. Some way to generate a feeling of being understood/accepted, perhaps even loved. The latter may even end up in constant "proof" in the forms of promotion, gifts or sex. I think it may be our job as adults to identify which engine we use, and whether it runs cleanly/sustainingly for the rest of what we are (e.g. our health).

Unfortunately the brain seems to easily pick up new ways to "assimilate" at least the feeling of (shared?) appreciation all the time. One becomes in danger of becoming addicted, a junkie - the "J.".

Recently I find myself watching random YouTube clips every day, something I never used to do until about a month ago. It seems to be my brain harking back to an old addiction of mine - T.V.. I got rid of my last T.V. about 18 years ago, and it gave me loads of time and space to develop new interests - i.a. I read a lot more "slow news", e.g. newspapers, since then. But my brain is media mad, and so seems to always go for moving pictures over static stuff...

It could be anything, even binge-watching the Simpsons again from the beginning.

This propensity of my brain to seek recyclable moments of seeming attention - hey, there's moving/talking people in the room! - is harder to kick than any substance addiction I have had, or may still have (sugar?). Simply also because it's so well hidden.

So, should this not just be me - but a generally homo-sapient feature - pay attention!

I've said before that for now I want to write less here about global stuff, where extremism seems to be having a field day - cf. developments in Britain in recent weeks, e.g. - so what else is there currently to write about?

Well, we had a bit of a calamity here in Kreuzberg and surrounding quarters of Berlin today and especially yesterday.

It's the all-new Monsoon time of year in Berlin, apparently!

Here's a - trending! - video clip shot by a colleague yesterday afternoon, when he was returning from lunch:

In the evening of that day that U-Bahn metro station was out of commission, as well as 2-3 near it. So I had to get home another way...

On an overfull bus nearby, by now pretty wet, a big lady, even wetter because she did not have an umbrella, blocked the stairs to the top storey, so a whole lot of people, also mesome, could not get on, after all. She, looking drenched and decidedly inclement, wouldn't budge.

I had to walk/wait in the rain for another half-hour before getting on another less popular bus to a remote U-Bahn station, from which I then could ride another 6 stations, including one line change, to my home one. All-in-all it took 3 times as long to get home from work compared to other days. I arrived wet & tired.

No great adventure feeling there. Rather thoughts of southern Asia where monsoon seasons last weeks! Much respect was gained...

Then, yesterday, after constant lesser rain for over 30 hours, after I'd left home for a meeting with friends, this time armed with a light, but long-armed jacket, somewhat waterproof, but no umbrella (!), after 5 minutes on foot on the road, the monsoon-grade deluge began again. I managed to duck into another U-Bahn station, and got to the café more or less dry. Lucky escape!

This, however, left me thinking about the unwitting rain god in Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide epos (beginning of the third book?) - and whether I perhaps share one or other eccentric chromosome with him?!

So what's the current status on the WannaCry ransomware infection? Several hundred thousands of non-Windows-10 - also non-Linux & non-MacOS - PCs/laptops/servers may have been infected, making many of them useless due to important files having been scrambled. For many of these, apparently no functioning backups exist! Microsoft had recently finally/correspondingly released a free complete security update (no. KB4012598) for free download. All sorts of calls for more oversight and general control of the Internet - whatever that means, and does that include Internet-espionage government agencies?! - are now being made public...

In a current op ed in the New York Times some interesting ideas have been put forward, on how Microsoft and government could do much more to raise industry security standards.

One point not mentioned there, is that the fast release cycle for new operating systems, initiated at its current high-profit 3-4 year level by Microsoft* itself decades (!) ago, copied by all major op. system distributors since then, may also have contributed greatly to the current problem. All system administrators know why their bosses live by the motto NEVER CHANGE A RUNNING SYSTEM - because new software invariably contains new bugs, including doorways for exploits by viruses such as the current "big in the news" one. So, if an operating system, like Windows XP, has proved stable, it tends to be kept in use as long as possible.

Buggy software means unexpectedly high & sudden expenses.

The motto (in capitals, above) is also automatically enforced by another problem: The connecting interface** to applications - esp. big ones like database and document retrieval management systems - tends to also change whenever a major release to an operating system is installed. So, most application levels "sitting" on the op. system may have to be updated, then, too!

An upgrade always takes a lot more effort (= money) to apply than a smaller update of the current version.

So, maybe the rapidity of the whole innovation cycle is the problem. Or rather, it is part of a self-regulating overall system that will cause massive failure of partly important systems, if a more appropriate balance between release cycles and need for innovation is not found...

I am not against innovation, but it could use more stabilisation and good testing. Any software engineer can tell a story supporting that.

We are part of the world, and thus so are the things we make within the world. And the world has regulated itself for a long, long time.

Let's - especially us i.t. guys - get with the rhythm!