I am a huge fan of George R. R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series, of which A Game of Thrones is the first book. But that’s not what this is about. No, this is about Norway. Or, rather, Norwegian culture. Though I have no Scandinavian blood that I know of, I have developed over my years of living in the Upper Midwest a tremendous admiration for Scandinavian culture. So when I saw these two different articles that capture the resilience and creativity of this Nordic culture that I appreciate so much, I thought I’d share. The first comes from Open Culture, one of my favorite websites, and describes the work of Terje Isungset, a...

I’ve been in too many meetings of late where very little was accomplished. We talked and talked and talked, but almost nothing got done. Discussion meetings are fine and sometimes quite important, but none of these meetings were billed as “discussion only.” I came assuming we had work to get done. The strange, and rather disheartening, thing about it has been that few of the others in attendance seemed to mind. Don’t get me wrong – they didn’t enjoy the meeting; rather, it’s as if they’ve just gotten used to holding meetings for the sake of meeting and no longer expect to get much done. Over time, I suspect, this only...