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One of the most depressing things I ever read is about Norwegians not having good ideas for spending their money, so the tend to opt for buying second and third

One of the most depressing things I ever read is about Norwegians not having good ideas for spending their money, so the tend to opt for buying second and third holiday homes. I mean I am sure having holiday homes provides a certain degree of happiness, it was just the mundaneness and banality of the human condition that depressed me about it.

olavk 10y ago
If you have experienced the nature in Norway, you will understand having holiday cottages is a nice way to spend money.
- anothercomment 10y ago
  One or two, yes - but three? As I said, for sure it provides some happiness. But the lack of ideas is simply depressing. A similarly depressing thing I read is about people in Second Life simply recreating the houses they dream about in real life, despite having infinite possibilities.
  - exodust 10y ago
    The house you dream about in real life will be more interesting to build in 3D than a gimmicky "infinite" house. There is a sense of real architectural visualization work going on. The process of constructing your dream house in 3D gives you a new way to see the house outside of your own mind.
digi_owl 10y ago
It is likely a bit more nuanced than that. Likely for most families you do not need to go back many generations to find a farmers origin. For those it was not unusual to have some kind of cabin in the hills (4 walls and a roof, not much more than to keep the weather at bay) used for hunting and such. So the idea of having a cabin to retreat to is ingrained. In recent years though it seems to have taken on a bit of a caricature of itself as monied interests have taken to build clusters of "cabins" that are as well equipped as full on houses and selling them. You may liken it to tract housing. And most of these are not bought with straight up money, but debt. One thing to note is that most of the top entries on the happiness list also are up top on the list of household debt, where housing and similar loans make up a big part. Most of the nations, Norway included, is likely to have their own variant of a "subprime crisis" sooner rather than later.

olavk 10y ago

If you have experienced the nature in Norway, you will understand having holiday cottages is a nice way to spend money.

anothercomment 10y ago
One or two, yes - but three? As I said, for sure it provides some happiness. But the lack of ideas is simply depressing. A similarly depressing thing I read is about people in Second Life simply recreating the houses they dream about in real life, despite having infinite possibilities.
- exodust 10y ago
  The house you dream about in real life will be more interesting to build in 3D than a gimmicky "infinite" house. There is a sense of real architectural visualization work going on. The process of constructing your dream house in 3D gives you a new way to see the house outside of your own mind.

digi_owl 10y ago

It is likely a bit more nuanced than that. Likely for most families you do not need to go back many generations to find a farmers origin. For those it was not unusual to have some kind of cabin in the hills (4 walls and a roof, not much more than to keep the weather at bay) used for hunting and such. So the idea of having a cabin to retreat to is ingrained. In recent years though it seems to have taken on a bit of a caricature of itself as monied interests have taken to build clusters of "cabins" that are as well equipped as full on houses and selling them. You may liken it to tract housing. And most of these are not bought with straight up money, but debt. One thing to note is that most of the top entries on the happiness list also are up top on the list of household debt, where housing and similar loans make up a big part. Most of the nations, Norway included, is likely to have their own variant of a "subprime crisis" sooner rather than later.