You can condense the ten rules down to one: 1. You're not to think.
I don't know if you live/have lived in Scandinavia but this is depressingly accurate.
Not true, you can think, as long as you think like everybody else.
Law of Jante
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Re: Law of Jante
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because it has nothing to do with the Jante Law. Those who succeed don't comply to it.
That's actually a pretty good question, in my opinion. I don't have an answer but it appears initially to be a contradiction. However, obviously it is not. Importantly one should not take these principles literally. Few to no people do this today. I disagree with that few comply. Like with a lot of cultural norms, the compliance with Jante is often happening subconsciously. When a Swedish founder on stage makes a jok…
I didn't say few comply. I said that those few who are successful don't comply :) Pretty important distinction.
Re: Law of Jante
#33Wow. I just learned about this on a visit to Norway. The way it was explained to me, this is one factor that could hold the Norwegians back as they move toward a post-oil economy, because they're going to need to focus on sectors like tech where there's huge variance in talent and outcomes which they'll have to accept to make it work. That said, there was some great activity in Oslo during Innovation Week.
It is a caricature and not exactly how we act in Norway. I work in the Norwegian tech sector and don't really see this as the problem.
The problem is more about getting investors to novel ideas. It is much easier to get investors to back crazy ideas in the US than in Norway.
Other than that I think Norway has many strengths. It has an efficient government where it is easy and quick to start a company. Unlike the US starting a company is low risk because you got covered with public health care regardless. You got good unemployment benefits you can use for a year while getting your company up and running.
I honestly never felt there was a shirtage of ideas and talent in Norway. The problem is on the business side of things. We are poor at marketing ourselves and think in terms of how to profit from innovations.
But it is in no way impossibe to make it in Norway. Most of our billionaires are self made. In fact we have more billionaires prr capita than the US and more social mobility.
Re: Law of Jante
#34are we seriously not gonna mention that this is a thing because Nordic countries have a homogeneous population?
try not to stand out when you're the only person in the room that's not a 6 ft tall pale skinned blonde
Re: Law of Jante
#35Re: Law of Jante
#36Leprous, a Norwegian band, has an album "Tall Poppy Syndrome" with lyrics which reflect this law: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36HuYPnx5oE
Re: Law of Jante
#37How then in Sweden we have a startup boom?
The end result is that people demands more proof before accepting that your idea is exceptional. I'd guess that this could reduce noise making it easier to focus on relevant startups.
Re: Law of Jante
#38How then in Sweden we have a startup boom?
Because it has nothing to do with the Jante Law. Those who succeed don't comply to it.
Sure they do, at least some of them. People frown upon anyone, including billionaires, who is too full of themselves, and I think you can definitely tell the difference if you compare the 1% in Scandinavia with places such as New York.
An anecdote will illustrate what I mean. My mother was at the pharmacy once, and as the lady at the register was explaining to the man in front of her how the discount system works, with stamps etc he listened politely and patiently. She couldn't have guessed that he was the owner of H&M, the 17th richest man in the world.
The older I get and the more I travel the more I appreciate this aspect of life in Scandinavia and I don't think there is any indication that this has hampered growth or entrepreneurship, quite the opposite.
The point is not that you shouldn't do your best, succeed and make a lot of money, it's about how you should behave if you do succeed.
Re: Law of Jante
#39Moderation and a comparatively egalitarian approach are quintessential Danish qualities, all too often thoughtlessly maligned and ridiculed.
The fact is, for better or worse, these traits have served us well as a functioning society for the last thousand years, and in my guess, far longer back than that. A few data points:
The last Danish regent or head of government to die violently was king Erik Klipping. The date may resonate with some Americans. It was the 22nd of November. But it was in the year 1286.
We have had no real civil warfare since the late viking age. Some unrest leading up to the reformation ("Count's Feud") was actually a war against North Germans. The reformation itself was settled fairly amicably. No real bloodshed, the monks and nuns were often allowed to stay in their monastries for as long as they lived.
No pitched battles in 1848/49. A delegation went and saw the king. A democratic constitution was announced.
An overwhelming majority of Danish jews escaped unharmed to neutral Sweden in 1943, a thing only possible because of a quiet but widespread support in the general population.
Really, we haven't done too badly. But it's not a societal model particularly well geared towards the present day influx of large numbers of people with quite different and often more muscular attitudes to everyday interictions.
Re: Law of Jante
#40I think foreigners tend to profoundly misunderstand what the law of Jante is about. It is not guidelines for how to behave in Scandinavia. It is a caricature we use ourselves to fight negative aspects of our culture. IMHO it is the negative aspects of things which are actually positive in Scandinavia. Humbleness, solidarity, consensus seeking, honesty are good Scandinavian virtuous. But there is always a flip side of…
Never mind that the author was a known misanthrope...