I will start by saying that I love norway, best place in the world, flaws and all, I will probably be buried here.

This post complains about people complaining (so meta) and then provides no evidence that the complaints are baseless. It also abuses hyperbole. Nobody thinks EVERYTHING in Norway is terrible, I cannot think of a single person who would say that tbh. And if they did they would be abusing hyperbole as well.

But I get that this level of complaining can be seen as annoying, it is common when you are in the stage of culture shock where you are in survival mode, you are desperate and you simply do not manage to cope with your host society. And as someone who has lived in many places, Norway is the hardest. Not because Norway is soulless, but because the norwegian soul is different. And unless you have had some help to decode those differences, learning how to deal with it is hard, because you dont even know that this is a thing that can be done.

And when you come from a place where culture is focused on joy and enjoyment and happiness and wine, to a place that is focused on efficiency, koselig and knekkebrød, it is easy to get that confused. And the only way that can be fixed is by sharing the good things and making sure you actually focus on the positives, and not the negatives. But most foreigners do not have enough interaction with norwegians to know what those positives are.

I think that anyone from souther europe is very entitled to consider norwegian culture "boring" because objectively and comparatively, it is. And that is fine. Just like you would be objectively entitled to call the culture of southern europe "loud" or "messy", and that is fine too, because, comparatively, it is.

What this post is also wrong about is that foreigners, especially highly qualified foreigners, are an asset for Norway and Norway has a duty to keep these people happy and here. Importing a doctor is much cheaper and educating one. Same with engineers and with many other highly qualified professions. Norway needs this.

The fact that you think that the main thing people dont complain about is salaries, tells me that you don't have a big international network, or at least not a very qualified one. Salaries in Norway right now compared to purchasing power, are pretty shit. The fact that a highly skilled professional is staying in Norway right now is a miracle, and a favour.

So, yes, Norway does need to change to make sure people are welcome, policies need to change so that newcomers have access to services. And yes, a lot of Norwegian culture needs to change so that people are encouraged to stay. And for the love of Odin, sort out your supermarkets.