Nerds in Norway

There are nerds in Norway! And they're great!

I can personally attest that there are, indeed, nerds in Norway. I have been there. I have seen them. I interacted with them, for hours and hours. They are, indeed, nerdy. Most, though not all, are Norwegian nerds; others are simply nerds who happen, at the moment, to be in Norway.

It may be that the folks roaming the streets in Oslo are largely nerds; maybe few of them are; I can't say. What I can say is that there is a whole passel of them in the offices of Point Carbon, a company I visited earlier this week.

Computer nerds all over the world have lots of things in common, which is part of why it's so much fun to visit them. Part of the fun is also seeing how they're different.

The most obvious differences spring from the fact that these nerds are in, well, Norway, which is kind of far north and is loaded with mountains. Norway, as you may know, came away from the recent Winter Olympics with a huge number of Gold Medals, which only strikes you as the amazing accomplishment it truly is when you realize that the whole country has fewer people than Brooklyn and Queens put together. So I guess it's not so very surprising that you see skis leaning up against the computer-laden desks of these urban nerds.

Marianne Amble, their head techie, was kind enough to give me permission to post a couple pictures from a recent winter party she and her nerds had, by way of illustration of the Norwegian-ness of the Point Carbonites.

Here are nerds getting ready to race down the hill, like the mature adults they all, undoubtedly, are...

OK, nerds, get ready, get set...

GO!

After all that work, it's time for some relaxation, but let's have some dry ice to remind us what part of the world we live in, and a colorful greeting from Espen...

I had a lot of fun on my recent visit, and really appreciate the hospitality and good, honest, open work we got to do together. It's one of the things I most value about my job - it enables me to travel all over and nerd out with some really great people who are accomplishing things of value.