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I've lived in the Netherlands for 14 years—why we're always ranked one of the world's happiest countries (www.cnbc.com)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I was born in Poland and grew up in Germany, but my family and I have been living in the Netherlands for the last 14 years.

When I first discovered the concept of "niksen," or the Dutch art of doing nothing, I was fascinated. I even wrote a book about it. When I applied it to my own life, my perspective about happiness shifted in a significant way.

I believe niksen is one of the reasons why the Dutch are consistently ranked as some of the happiest people in the world. Niksen might seem selfish or boring at first glance, but it's actually a service to you and your community.

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[+] [email protected] -19 points 8 months ago (2 children)

I've read that corporations who have their HQ's in The Netherlands .. are forced to get someone from some other country/culture, when searching for C-level people:

The Netherlands culture can't and won't be driven-enough to do the amount of work required: it isn't sensical, in that culture, to be driven, so.

Just as your body has different organs for different kinds of function, we need to have different cultures for different kinds of people.

Without bones, how happy would you be using your liver, kidneys, brain, etc, for scaffolding while trying to stand-up??

The same is true of drivenness.

There is a season for each kind, in Nature, there is a place for each kind, in Nature, and we'd do much better, if we deliberately accepted/respected that, in our global urban-planning.

( this doesn't say that gutting parenting, so as to have destitution-wages, to enforce attachment-disorder in the children, to produce in the next generation over 600 mass-shootings in the US in 2023, is somehow valid or proper or respectable, however.

Drivenness doesn't require sociopathy-psychopathy/narcissism's rule/dominion. )

_ /\ _

[–] [email protected] 18 points 8 months ago

I just wanted to downvote initially, but consider this:

a) your premise is wrong ("I read somewhere") b) if it were true that there's some innate tendency in Dutch people to not want to strive for anything, how do you explain their fairly advanced society? c) if it were true, they'd also not have a functioning government

your's isn't a good take

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

drivenness

You could have used "selfish" or "sociopathic" instead.