Build it and ship it. That’s the default. The assumption is that adding things to the world is good: a new feature, a new tool, a new step in the process. Adding fills a perceived gap. It’s visible and easy to point to.

AI makes it trivially easy to add something—a feature, a workflow, a paragraph. And that ease is a big part of why so many products slide toward enshittification: layer after layer added, nothing ever taken away, until the thing barely works for the people who use it. Adding isn’t the enemy; the problem is that it’s rarely questioned.

Removing is harder. To remove something well, you have to understand why it was there in the first place, and have the judgment to know it’s no longer needed. Things depend on it in ways that aren’t obvious until you pull it out. That often takes more thought than adding ever does. There’s also a quieter fear that we’re throwing away something valuable we might need later.

The skill that’s getting scarcer is subtraction. We rarely ask: What can we take away? What can we make simpler? What problem are we actually solving, and is it even worth solving? These questions matter more now, not less.

Answer those, and the payoff is real: what’s left works better, is easier to explain, and is easier to trust. Simplicity isn’t the absence of effort; it’s the result of it.

Perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away.

What did you remove or simplify today?

I’ve lived and worked in six countries and collaborated with people from 40+ nationalities.

The biggest cultural difference I’ve found isn’t between nationalities. It’s between people who’ve worked across cultures and people who haven’t.

That difference matters most in distributed teams where you can’t rely on physical proximity to build what culture requires.

Distributed isn’t a location setting. It’s a culture you either build deliberately or inherit accidentally.

The distributed team that works well has one thing the others don’t: someone who treats connection as part of the job.

4000m Peaks of the Alps - Normal and classic routes is a brilliant book if you’re interested in Alpine four-thousanders. It covers all the 82 peaks from the UIAA list, with normal and alternative routes, and a bit of history thrown in. Long out of print, I’ve been eyeing this book for several years. So you can imagine my enthusiasm when the new edition dropped this year. I’m not aware of any other modern Alpine book on the market like this at the moment.

I also own the late Martin Moran’s book The 4000m Peaks of the Alps - Selected Climbs which is also very good and recommended (revised version 2012). This book by Marco Romelli and Valentino Cividini is newer, updated (third edition 2026), and comes with excellent photos mostly by the authors. It’s hugely informative, well laid out, and a joy to read and look at.

I haven’t read the whole book yet, but I can already see how much effort and passion has gone into creating it.

Having climbed only 10% of these peaks (at the time of writing), most are still a way off for me, but I’ll for sure be using this book to learn more, get new ideas, and prepare for the next target. It serves both as a guide/planning book and as inspiration for armchair mountaineers 🙂

Worth the wait. Get it now before it sells out again.

Working in two or more languages every day is invisible extra work. No one factors it into the planning. It takes energy.

But it also gives something back: perspective, flexibility, and a deeper understanding of other people.

Choosing which language to use based on who’s in the room (not just what words you want to use) is a leadership skill.

Language choices don’t just shape communication; they shape participation.

That’s why, often without us realising it, these choices influence who belongs in the conversation.

Language is belonging, trust, culture, and power; all at once.

And switching languages is invisible work that shapes who gets included.

The Law of Jante says: blend in. The job market says: stand out. Something has to give.

Jantelagen (written as satire in 1933) is built on collective unity, yet Nordic countries score among the highest in the world for individualism. Those two things are in direct conflict.

Taking Jantelagen literally might be the most Jante thing of all.

Being Finnish, I now recognise experiencing something similar in my childhood. But I wasn’t aware of what that was, or where it came from—like a fish unaware of the water it swims in.

The first time I heard about it was when I was working in Copenhagen. Since then, I’ve been navigating that narrow space between standing out and sticking out. One is admired. One is punished.

Who controls the interpretation of your visibility? The community does. That’s the real mechanism behind Jantelagen. It’s also its biggest problem.

It belongs to a stable, predictable world. In a job market disrupted by remote work, AI, geopolitical earthquakes, and climate transition, blending in is the riskiest strategy of all.

In a job search, knowing who you are and what you bring—and giving yourself permission to make it visible—eats Jante for breakfast.

I just received my certificate in the course An Introduction to Climate Change and Human Rights at UN CC:Learn. A couple of days earlier, I also completed Net Zero 101: What, Why and How.

Both were short, but they gave me a clearer picture of how climate change connects to the way we live, work, and treat each other: from emissions pathways to Net Zero, to the human impact of a changing climate, particularly on the most vulnerable.

I’ve been trying to live climate-conscious in my own daily choices, and courses like these are a small but useful way to turn that curiosity into a better understanding of the bigger picture. Always looking to keep learning and find ways to do things a little better.

I’ve been using AI tools for a couple of years now. This week I decided to formalise that with some structured learning.

I completed four Anthropic Academy courses on AI literacy and AI fluency, plus two others: Elements of AI, and Career Essentials in Generative AI.

Six AI certificates in six days, across three platforms:

Anthropic Academy

• Claude 101
• AI Fluency: Framework & Foundations
• AI Fluency: Capabilities & Limitations
• Introduction to Claude Cowork

University of Helsinki

• Elements of AI

Microsoft & LinkedIn

• Career Essentials in Generative AI

AI is moving fast, and it’s largely being shaped by a handful of large American commercial companies with their own interests. That’s worth keeping in mind.

But I’d rather engage with it critically and create a foundation to build on, than dismiss it. Ignoring it is not an option.

Knowing how it works, how to apply it in real workflows, what it can and can’t do, and where the risks lie feels more useful than either hype or dismissal.

All six are free and self-paced if you want to form your own view.

Continuing on my AI learning path, I just completed the Elements of AI: Introduction to AI online course, earning a certificate and two ECTS credits.

This course is part of Elements of AI, a series of free online courses created by MinnaLearn and the University of Helsinki. It covers a broad range of topics including the history and definitions of AI, search algorithms, the Bayes rule, machine learning, supervised learning methods, neural networks, deep learning, real world applications, and the societal implications of AI.

What I liked most is that it’s more “computer sciency” than most introductory AI courses. It goes deeper under the hood, combining theory with fun puzzles and reflection tasks. It’s available in multiple languages and completely free, so if you want to genuinely demystify AI and understand how it works rather than just what it does, I’d highly recommend it.

Continuing to build on my existing certifications in Scrum, SAFe, Agile Kata, and Product Ownership, I just completed the Career Essentials in Generative AI learning path, earning the Microsoft Professional Certificate. It felt like a worthwhile investment of time in a space that’s moving faster than most of us can keep up with.

AI is reshaping how we work, and staying current matters. The path consisted of five modules:

• What Is Generative AI?
• Your Top AI Questions Answered: AI Literacy for Everyone
• Learning Microsoft 365 Copilot for Work
• Ethics in the Age of Generative AI
• Everyday AI Concepts

If you’re looking for a structured, free introduction to generative AI that results in a recognised certificate, I’d recommend giving it a look.

The Moving Goalposts

From my own experience navigating the job market right now: Youth is mistaken for energy. Experience is mistaken for rigidity.

Underqualified at 25. Overqualified at 50. The goalposts move, but somehow you end up on the wrong side of them.

How Ageism Hides in Plain Sight

Age discrimination in hiring is illegal in many countries, Sweden included. And yet, you see it routinely in the language: We’re looking for someone who can grow with us. Translation: we’d prefer you weren’t already grown.

Add a minimum number of years of experience, and the message becomes clear: lifelong learners with a long work history, apparently, need not apply.

Experience Is Not the Opposite of Potential

The assumption that experience makes you less moldable is worth questioning. If we’re genuinely hiring for potential, what has age got to do with it?

Adult education is an underrepresented and undervalued path. Many people reinvent themselves professionally well into their 40s, 50s, and beyond. That’s not a liability. That’s exactly what potential looks like.

Both assumptions cost organisations more than they admit. For the people on the receiving end, the cost is personal, financial, mental, and largely invisible. We should talk more about that.

Sweden’s Equality Blind Spot

Sweden is proud of its equality. Ageism in recruitment is still its blind spot.