this post was submitted on 25 Feb 2024
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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] 80 points 8 months ago (2 children)

living wage, social services, work life balance, drugs

[–] [email protected] 19 points 8 months ago

And much much Better urban planning that's focused on people not on cars

[–] [email protected] 19 points 8 months ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 11 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Seems like niksen is basically assuming all the other things are already in place. Gotta have all that other stuff before you can even think about having the time to "do nothing."

Edit: Either that or we're in yet another "it must be all the olive oil!" shams.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

I knew you hippies would come around to me eventually… arooooo.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 8 months ago

TIL another country has a name for how I like to live.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 8 months ago (1 children)

this isnt even pretending to be news, this is an opinion piece. Come the fuck on

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

Is there a !worldopinion?

[–] [email protected] 20 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Niksen is the Dutch word for “doing nothing” (see idleness [german: Müßiggang]) and has been increasingly used since 2019 as a buzzword for a promoted relaxed lifestyle. The Niksen is comparable to the Dolcefarniente (Italy), kalsarikännit (Finland), Lagom (Sweden) and hygge (Denmark).

German Wiki

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

"Lagom" means "just enough", and has more to do with not taking more than you need, and I believe it being strongly correlated with the cultural "jante lagen" (="thou shall live and act as a humble human."). Niksen and lagom doesn't seem to have any similarities beyond that.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Kalsarikännit is getting drunk alone at home.

A sign of alcoholism, so we Finns use humour to cope with it and talk about it jokingly. Like with suicide.

Equating that to hygge and lagom is just to simplify all of them to the point of almost complete reinterpretation.

However I don't disagree with what you're trying to convey, and those concepts may be tangentially related to a degree, but...

[–] [email protected] 11 points 8 months ago

Who the hell has time for niksen these days...

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago

in the US we have The Dude

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

I am jealous of your "we". I'm half Greek and half danish and can't say we to any of them.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Where’s hygge from because that shits also fire.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

Scandinavia

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)