Finland Developer Diaries: Life in the Happiest Country

Pen Magnet
9 min readOct 14, 2024

Not happy in the obvious sense

Photo by McKayla Crump on Unsplash

The last entry in this article series (“Finland Developer Diaries”) was posted 10 months ago. What took so long to come back to it?

The trigger point is always the weather. Last time, it was a dark winter Friday evening.

Today, it’s a sunny autumn Saturday.

In Finland, noticing every weather change seems obligatory. Nature compels you to be always aware (mindful?) of your surroundings, your activities, and your interactions.

It’s a shock coming from a part of the world where the weather changes lazily every quarter.

Mindfulness:

My first Finnish employer maintained a small office library. Yes, libraries are almost a rule in Finnish companies. The most rented book was the one about Mindfulness (I don’t remember its name now).

I bravely stole a few of my work hours to finish almost a quarter of it.

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez 🇨🇦 on Unsplash

Mindfulness is a huge thing in the Nordic corporate culture. From my colleagues, I heard that at some point, HR hired a psychology coach to conduct…

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Pen Magnet
Pen Magnet

Written by Pen Magnet

Author of Comprehensive Approach to Senior Developer Interview), Startup writer, Programmer, Tech Career Blogger, Education Engagement Enthusiast