What I like most about Norway?

What I like most about Norway?

Egalitarian social system.

Very nice people (most of the time).

High standard of living.

Alcohol policy... NOT! :) (I can't buy a bottle of wine after 15:00 on Saturdays and not at all on Sundays - I feel being treated a irresponsible kid by the society as whole, but, well, that's not the focus of this blog post) :)

There are even more things about Norway I like. But most of all - by far - I love the nature in this country. The fjords and mountains are so magnificent, the lakes so colourful. There are so many breathtaking views all around the country - and I have only seen a small bit of it.

Norway belongs to the TOP 3 countries for me in terms of the nature. All three are those I have lived in - Norway, Croatia and Kazakhstan. Norway has a great combination though. It is both not so much densely populated (there is a lot of untouched wild nature over here) and it has great infrastructure for hiking (marked paths, simple tourist accommodation, updated maps, safe roads etc).

My latest trip was to the area of Voss which is not too far away from Bergen - below are just some of the snapshots speaking for my love affair with the Norwegian nature (and the tiny lovely settlements around).

Review: The French Revolution: A Beginner's Guide

The French Revolution: A Beginner's Guide by Davies Peter

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A compact overview of the French Revolution (the end of the 18th century). The author does a good job listing the facts and clearly defining the different periods, while taking a neutral, rational approach to the analysis of this important historical event.

However, the book is rather dry and does not read as a coherent narrative - facts are followed by analysis, then new facts, new analysis etc. The last chapters are more interesting - especially in terms of highlighting the legends which have arisen after the French Revolution.

All in all, I would recommend this book.

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How I learnt programming - Codeacademy

My professional ambitions are related to the information technology management. This is the path I partly follow now - and this is the direction I want to grow in further.

Having worked close to 4 years in an IT-company, I see almost every day that people without technical background education consider the developers' room as "a-place-where-magic-happens". In many occasions, I represent one of those.

Indeed, although I intuitively understand why some things take longer than expected in programming, although I often ask questions from my IT-skilled colleagues, at times I feel simply dumb. What all these lines of code REALLY mean?

Few weeks ago I read of an exceptional U.S.-based start-up which enables people like me to actually learn programming in a fully interactive mode - Codeacademy. You start to learn immediately, as you go - all by solving exercises which start with trivial things and get more and more complicated. There is a good explanation for each component and hints if you don't get it at once - all framed into an easy and clean interface. I have used it and have passed two sets of exercises already. And I can say I love this tool! One needs patience and determination to handle it - but, well, so it goes for all kind of learning.

For me, this project is now on the same line as Khan Academy which I discovered somewhat earlier (and thanks to which I have learnt a great deal about the biology for example). Viva la life-long learning!

Below is the example of the code I wrote for one easy numerical algorithm (with the help of replication and instructions, of course):


Just a couple of days ago I would have struggled understanding it all. What does this code result in? This array of digits/words:

1

2

Fizz

4

Buzz

Fizz

7

8

Fizz

Buzz

11

Fizz

13

14

FizzBuzz

One can learn JavaScrip, jQuery as well as the web fundamentals (HTML and CSS) through Codeacademy. As for now, completely free. I just need time to master it all (and I hope I will have enough of it) - in order to be able to see the real math behind the apparent "magic" when working with the software developers :)

Review: Fra idé til vekst

Fra idé til vekst by Håvard K. Bjor

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book provides a well-structured overview of all phases a start-up company goes through. The book has plentiful of practical tips and simple models that any entrepreneur can use in his/her practise. It is especially well-suited for Norwegian practitioners and students.

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How to ruin your message with professional clichés

I have recently received an invitation to a webinar organised by one international company to my work mailbox (they had probably gotten it from some database). It would otherwise not catch my attention too much - but after scrolling through it a little bit, I realised that it was a prime example of how to ruin the whole message with fancy sounding clichés.

Hi Deniss,

My name is [...], Senior Director of Feedback Management at [..]. I wanted to let you know about some information that could impact on your role at [...]. A recent [...] study, “Customer Feedback Management: Leveraging the Voice of the Customer to Amplify Business Results,” revealed that companies successfully leveraging Voice of the Customer (VOC) programs accomplish quantifiable year-over-year performance gains including increased annual revenue and higher customer satisfaction ratings.

[...] I will be hosting a webinar, based on the study’s findings [...]

I hope you’ll be able to join us for what is sure to be an informative webinar that will yield valuable take-aways for your organization!

I wonder if I am the only one who starts to smile when reading messages which exhibit phrases like "information that could impact on your role", "companies successfully leveraging Voice of the Customer (VOC) programs accomplish quantifiable year-over-year performance gains" and "yield valuable take-aways for your organization"?

Keep it short and simple - I hope I follow this effective rule in my business correspondence.

Questioning biotechnology

This is why I have always been sceptical when hearing about the latest advancements in biotechnology. I really hope the wrong people won't get using it...

"I am not paid for this"

I recall one of the worst experiences in my past student life. It was when one visiting lecturer who gave a course got the question from one student in the class on whether it would be possible to arrange a separate tutorial session for those who wanted to learn material more in-depth.

"I am not paid for this, sorry", was his answer. In front of around 100-150 students present in that class.

Another similar experience comes from a corporate world. I asked one person who was going off to (unpaid) vacation whether he would occasionally be checking his email while being out of the office.

"No, I am not paid for this", was his answer. This person was coming back from vacation to his working place after a while.

What is my problem with that kind of answers? They had totally right - they were not paid for doing the things they were asked for, did they?

However, such answers immediately indicate that a person is doing the job only for money, he does not have an interest in you (as a student/client/co-worker) whatsoever. A person puts himself in a position of a reflective employee who is given orders and thereafter gets a carrot if he fulfils the order. No proactivity. No initiative. No dedication.

I must admit that certain degree of "you-pay-me-and-only-then-I-will-give-you-a-service-
mentality" is beneficial in a capitalist society. But it can at least be communicated in a more gentle manner.

P.S. I am not paid to write this blog. Hmmm...

My media habits - distingushing between new insights and trash

I have developed certain enduring practices of following media during past 2-3 years. It would be interesting to describe it now and compare it with what it will be in 10 or 20 years...

As for now, I believe I managed to build routines which allow me to stay connected to what happens around, but - on the other hand - not to spend time on stuff which does not bring any value. My work experience as a reporter in different media channels as well as attended journalism studies some years ago have certainly helped me to differentiate between worthwhile sources and - putting it simply - bullshit.

Online newspapers - as a representative of younger generation I obviously often read news on the Internet. However, I do it only once a day, spending between 15 and 30 minutes a day for scanning through the front pages of selected news channels and clicking on the articles I am most interested in. This is mostly to get the overview. Here are some principles I use:

• I rarely read articles in-depth, as I don't want to spend even more time in front of the PC (I do it a lot during the working hours anyway) - and one can quickly grasp the essence by scanning through an article.
• I rarely read online newspapers during the weekend. I prefer not to distract my life with everyday news during some days. At the same time - as I know - the journalists work much less during the weekends - and it is usually junior editors being responsible for updating the content then. Thus, it is hard to expect that much quality in news reports during the weekends.
• I very rarely read the readers' comments. I have an impression that people who write the comments to the articles are those who have too much free time. Having too much free time doesn't for me belong to the signs of a successful person who knows what to do with his/her life. Do I want to read "insights" from bunch of people like that? Normally not. Besides, it is most often biased criticism or whining.

These are the media channels I follow on the regular basis:
postimees.ee (the largest general news channel in Estonia)
epl.ee (the second-largest general news channel in Estonia)
e24.ee (the business news portal in Estonia)
aftenposten.no (the largest general news channel in Norway)
bbc.co.uk (well known British-based international news channel)

These are the media channels that I follow less regularly (around once a week or once in 2-3 weeks):
dn.no (business news portal in Norway)
aripaev.ee (business news portal in Estonia)
dw.de (general news portal in Germany)
Few news portals from Kazakhstan and Russia

Radio podcasts - this is something I am a big fan of. An excellent way to listen to what you want and when you want it. On the way to the office or back home, when preparing breakfast or cooking dinner - I fill these moments of the day with something for my mind as well. This is my main source of current analytical information, debates, interviews and so on. Here is the list of podcasts I download once a week in order to listen to them when I want:

• Raadio Kuku - by far the best serious radio station in Estonia. Several political and society commentary as well as business analysis and IT-related podcasts. In addition, some history.
• Raadio 2 - youthful public radio station in Estonia where I subscribe to one podcast only ("Olukorrast riigist") - summary of the most important news and events in Estonia during the week.
• NRK P2 - the most serious Norwegian public radio broadcast. I subscribe mainly to political and societal podcasts as well as radio documentaries. Unfortunately, business and economics are very poorly represented in Norwegian radio.
• Sveriges Radio - Swedish public broadcast. Here I am mainly interested in economy.
• 8 sidor - easily-read news in Swedish (since my comprehension of Swedish is not at all perfect, it is good to train it with simpler language).
• dw.de - German public broadcasting. Economy and business podcasts are the most interesting for me here.
• bbc.co.uk - BBC has very good podcasts on business and economy as well as radio documentaries.

Press: newspapers and magazines on paper - mainly too much paper to waste, although I will probably subscribe to selected weekly media and business press in the future.

Radio - I don't listen to radio as such. I don't like when someone else decides for me what and when I should listen to, mixing it all with occasional music that I don't necessarily like and with news that I am not necessarily interested in.

TV - I am happy not-owner of a TV-set. Having briefly worked there and having studied it at the university helped me to realize that 90% of content there is bullshit. Entertainment shows, series, sitcoms, reality shows and other trash that is created just for one purpose - to keep you watch the same commercials over and over again. All this trash is created quite skilfully - playing with human's psychology - so that you are waiting for the next episode, next big movie, next show with a sexy TV-presenter you like and so on and so forth.

How about the other 10% - news, good documentaries, occasional good films, insightful TV debates? Well, there is YouTube and other modern tools for that. I can choose what I watch and when I watch it myself - and not being dependent on what some smart-asses in TV editorial boards have decided to.

...well, let's see what will be my personal media field in some decades...