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*As in "Welcome to" and where "Gator Country"
means "Los Angeles"
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Gator Country: The Nicolai Index
I have a lifelong friend and let's call him Nicolai. He is intensely technical, relentlessly practical, deeply curious, quietly sentimental, and Norwegian in a way that seems to make every plan involve mountains, fjords or unnecessarily scenic routes. When I ask him a question like, can Vegans eat peanut butter, there is a good chance that I will get an initial set of questions back before I get my answer. Things like:
* Can you explain this more simply?
* Is there a scenic route?
* Are we keeping the peanut butter because it's useful or because nobody wants to throw it away?
* Would a Norwegian solve this problem with a fjord, a cabin, or a power tool?
* Did you implement the Caveman Prompt like I told you?
By asking about things like banana pancakes, I have learned why the mountain road is better than the tunnel, three ways to reduce AI token costs, where the best viewpoint in Norway is, and exactly how many old cell phones are hiding in Nicolai's garage.
If you don't ask about food prep, you *will* however get concise answers. A few that have stood out from him:
1. Relationship advice: "talk. listen. less idiot."
2. Fitness plan: "lift heavy. eat less cookie."
3. Parenting: "small human. no manual. do best, apologize, repeat."
4. Life: "nobody know plan. pretend confidence. figure out later."
5. Norwegian Road Trip: "tunnel fast. mountain better. take mountain."
6. Meetings: "why ten people. why forty slides. make decision please."
7. AI Conference: "speaker say AI change everything. next speaker say same thing. lunch."
8. Digital Transformation: "old process. new AI process. same Excel."
He is generally pretty quiet, and I have found that the most valuable people in a room rarely announce themselves and when they do talk, it's pretty good stuff. I call this the Nicolai Index. It might only exist in Scandinavian countries because it's cold and they like their personal space. As long as you're not talking about food prep. Or Norwegian football.
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