I am wondering if is it possible to combine, in just one blog post, a short story about one country, one modern IT business, several great friendships, air flights, professional challenges, and friendly people everywhere you look. I know the answer is probably no, but I will try anyway. Let's start with an easy puzzle: if you thought of The Little Mermaid and Hans Christian Andersen, quantum mechanics and Niels Bohr, the famous Hamlet's "To be or not to be" in Shakespeare's old play, and amazing cuisine with cookies, pretzels, Carlsberg beer, and Legos? The answer, for a very few of you who didn't guess, is, of course, Denmark. One of the top developed countries of the European Union. According to the United Nation's first-ever World Happiness Report from this year, Denmark has taken the top spot, followed by Finland, Norway, and the Netherlands. When I first read about this, I was skeptical since happiness is a relative thing and I am sure all people in the world are equally happy and unhappy from time to time depending on daily moodiness and events that drive us.
The Little Mermaid
However, now after my second visit to Denmark, I tend to change all the skepticism and maybe better understand the global happiness or social happiness, if you will. According to the study, one of the conclusions could be this (and I am paraphrasing the report): "While basic living standards are essential for happiness, and after the baseline has been met by the majority of people, social happiness varies more with the quality of human relationships than with income." Simple truth with no simple explanation, but if you ask me, I think that the history of any society is deeply embedded into everybody's DNA, and as long as it is not filled with lots of conflicts, wars, animosities, and hard times, the better human relationships become.
Several years ago, around the time of the birth of my son, I started outsourcing for a Danish consulting company within a team of developers providing coding in the Microsoft .NET environment for various purposes. A very big number of Danish companies are using Windows servers and other client-server solutions for their businesses based on the Microsoft environment, and according to my humble opinion, I fit in nicely due to my expertise and experience in the field in general.
The Rackpeople Team
Actually, contrary to most other jobs, being involved in IT development, more than having various degrees and initial knowledge, requires the ability to change and learn the new stuff. The technology is changing rapidly, and after more than five years of telecommuting, when it all started with simple web applications, we are currently involved in more sophisticated technologies like Lync and SharePoint development, connecting them with the mobile world and providing the right information at the right time. All those activities are followed by financial subsystems centered around Microsoft Dynamics C5, equally challenging from one developer's point of view. I remember the days back in the 80s and 90s when developing business software was completely different compared to the present day. This is no one-man show anymore. The complexity of the IT support, consulting, and development reached a higher level of understanding, and I mean for both sides, developers and customers. Even though I am outsourcing about 1600 kilometers away from the office, this would not be possible without internet, daily communications, reporting, solving puzzles, audio and video conferencing, brainstorming, and live meetings. The dynamic IT world is also affecting consulting companies, and five years is a very large period of time for all of us as well, so recently, as a result of last year's merger, the old/new company continued joined efforts within new surroundings and teamed up for future challenges.
Not so long ago I visited my friends at Rackpeople for a couple of meetings and some other on-and-off work activities in regard to future projects and also for simple socializing with the guys and some brainstorming sessions in a local brewery house (where else do brilliant ideas come from?).
Baltic Sea between Poland and Denmark
Of course, like any business trip, the best part came after work hours, where the office environment was replaced by the "Custom House" restaurant and an "ice cream" walk along with the brewery house in the 17th-century Nyhavn district at the end of my visit. This is part of Copenhagen you don't want to miss. I still can't choose what was the best: American classic steak, delicious ice cream in domesticated cones, or perfect draft beer. Regarding the whole event from a sightseeing point of view, what maybe impressed me the most was the sun still standing very much above the horizon while the local clock tower was showing 22 hours and a change. It was the cost of living on a round Earth so much north away from the equator. I enjoyed very much the sightseeing while driving through Copenhagen, visiting the famous Little Mermaid, and most of all our talks about lots of different topics. With this blog post I would like to thank Jesper, Claus, and Mark for an amazing evening.
I am not a frequent flyer, but every now and again I am using air traffic, and maybe now is my chance to write about my experience flying in a south-north straight line between Belgrade and Copenhagen. This last flight was pretty much smooth without much turbulence, probably because the weather was more or less the same during the whole 1600km long trip. However, two years ago I was taking the same flight during the hot summer, and the weather wasn't the same in the beginning of the flight compared to the last half hour and the descent itself. The moment the plane entered the Baltic Sea from continental Poland, the weather changed dramatically for the worse. I remember I was having a wing seat and saw the jet engine start seriously vibrating up and down. It was pretty scary, but the crew did not pay much attention, so I reckoned it was pretty much normal. The other travelers weren't so calm, especially one older lady that had to use the oxygen mask after landing, which was also a little disturbing, as the plane needed to take a couple of sharp turns at very low altitude in order to align with the runway. One more thing also attracted my attention, and this is how clean and spacious the Danish capital, suburbia, and small towns in the countryside are. Due to lots of rain over the year, everything is green and very compelling.
The Complete Guide To: The best of Denmark
http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/europe/the-complete-guide-to-the-best-of-denmark-1730450.html
The official website of Denmark
http://denmark.dk/en/
World Happiness Report 2012: Scandinavian Countries Are Happiest On Earth
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/06/world-happiness-report-2012_n_1408787.html
Rackpeople Hosting and Consulting
http://www.rackpeople.com/
The Little Mermaid
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Mermaid_(statue)
Nyhavn/New Harbour
http://www.nyhavn.com/
Custom House
http://www.customhouse.dk/en/cosmopolitan-cooking-close-to-the-sea.html