This is a very rose colored glasses view of Iceland. Having lived there until very recently, it is not a tech utopia by any means. There are very few jobs in tech, and no matter what you do or for how long it's rare to break 1M isk a month (which is about 80,000 - 85,000USD depending on the incredibly volatile currency) due to hostile tax structures. You can make less money developing software than you can fishing, so there's not a lot of draw to stay in the tech industry.
Most of that geothermal energy? Yeah, it's sent to massive aluminum smelting plants. The entire government is also influenced heavily by the fishing industry, and there is a lot of resistance to change.
The article also talks a lot about per capita investment. Considering Iceland has 375,000 people, that's hardly the stat to lead with. ~250,000 of them live in the capital area.
Iceland is a wonderful place, with wonderful people, but the economy is collapsing and the warring 10 parties of government are effectively slap fighting each other instead of changing anything just so they can not be the Independence party. Inflation has been hovering around 8-10% a month for the last year. Iceland's real draw is its natural beauty, and the tourism it inspires. Unfortunately, what used to be a very inexpensive place to visit is now incredibly expensive to fly to, and also expensive to be in. People I know in the tourism industries have said they saw rapid growth post-covid, but rising costs have zeroed out or even made them less profitable than before covid.
It is a place I love, and a people I love, and I will continue to go back and visit yearly. It isn't going to be the next hot tech spot though.
Most of that geothermal energy? Yeah, it's sent to massive aluminum smelting plants. The entire government is also influenced heavily by the fishing industry, and there is a lot of resistance to change.
The article also talks a lot about per capita investment. Considering Iceland has 375,000 people, that's hardly the stat to lead with. ~250,000 of them live in the capital area.
Iceland is a wonderful place, with wonderful people, but the economy is collapsing and the warring 10 parties of government are effectively slap fighting each other instead of changing anything just so they can not be the Independence party. Inflation has been hovering around 8-10% a month for the last year. Iceland's real draw is its natural beauty, and the tourism it inspires. Unfortunately, what used to be a very inexpensive place to visit is now incredibly expensive to fly to, and also expensive to be in. People I know in the tourism industries have said they saw rapid growth post-covid, but rising costs have zeroed out or even made them less profitable than before covid.
It is a place I love, and a people I love, and I will continue to go back and visit yearly. It isn't going to be the next hot tech spot though.