I countered a post I found a bit cynical in the comments, but I figured I should also counter the overly rose-tinted substack post, as it lacks some context.
> Iceland is also home to lots of "love refugees," tourists who found love during their trips to Iceland and never left.
The foreign workforce in the tourism industry is probably filled with people like this, so you're likely to get that impression. Most foreign immigrants move here to do all kinds of jobs simply because the salary is better than in their home country. For example, I once met a guy who was a manager at a software company in Poland that moved to Reykjavik to clean because it paid so much better.
It is quite common for IT related work in Iceland to be outsourced to mainland Europe. So while there is venture funding available to create new companies, the actualy labour of software development is outsourced. This to me is a red flag that counters the underlying message of the article.
> Iceland stands as a global leader in renewable energy, with 100% of its electricity grid relying on renewable resources.
Technically 99.9% as some areas require diesel generators. Iceland isn't a "leader". Iceland is geograhically lucky to have a lot of glacial meltwater (hydro) and shallow volcanism (geothermal). The virtue signalling around Iceland's grid is quite on the nose, particularly when it overlooks similarly lucky countries like Costa Rica. As an Icelander in this very field, I would say Ireland is the leader in renewable energy (if interested look up Eirgrid's DS3 project), as they're literally leaders in pushing the key technical limits of grids relative to renewable energy (i.e. inertia).
One broad aspect that is overlooked here is the need for work and residency permits. It is incredibly hard to get either of those as a non-european foreigner. Both because the requirements are highly restrictive and the directorate of immigration does its best to find reasons not to provide permits. The only recent positive change, that some here on HackerNews might find use for, is the long-term remote work visa (https://island.is/en/get-long-term-visa-for-remote-workers).
> Iceland is also home to lots of "love refugees," tourists who found love during their trips to Iceland and never left.
The foreign workforce in the tourism industry is probably filled with people like this, so you're likely to get that impression. Most foreign immigrants move here to do all kinds of jobs simply because the salary is better than in their home country. For example, I once met a guy who was a manager at a software company in Poland that moved to Reykjavik to clean because it paid so much better.
It is quite common for IT related work in Iceland to be outsourced to mainland Europe. So while there is venture funding available to create new companies, the actualy labour of software development is outsourced. This to me is a red flag that counters the underlying message of the article.
> Iceland stands as a global leader in renewable energy, with 100% of its electricity grid relying on renewable resources.
Technically 99.9% as some areas require diesel generators. Iceland isn't a "leader". Iceland is geograhically lucky to have a lot of glacial meltwater (hydro) and shallow volcanism (geothermal). The virtue signalling around Iceland's grid is quite on the nose, particularly when it overlooks similarly lucky countries like Costa Rica. As an Icelander in this very field, I would say Ireland is the leader in renewable energy (if interested look up Eirgrid's DS3 project), as they're literally leaders in pushing the key technical limits of grids relative to renewable energy (i.e. inertia).
One broad aspect that is overlooked here is the need for work and residency permits. It is incredibly hard to get either of those as a non-european foreigner. Both because the requirements are highly restrictive and the directorate of immigration does its best to find reasons not to provide permits. The only recent positive change, that some here on HackerNews might find use for, is the long-term remote work visa (https://island.is/en/get-long-term-visa-for-remote-workers).