Paul Arnesen

Norsk? 1433 HR – HRaaS og fraksjonell HR-støtte i Norge 1433hr.no

I just wrote my first note on Substack substack.com/profile/413745…

Leadership as Translation: The Invisible Work Of Belonging open.substack.com/pub/cpxexchang…

tell me one

@thealepalombo It’s has potential, but to be honest, the heat this summer has been unbearable. And for some reason, after 5 years here I have found it a very lonely experience living here, as many just come, stay a year and leave 🤔

Milan is the new London. The roaring London of the '90s, with more sunlight. Let's see if this brings back a growth mindset in Italy: - over 100k+ repatriates, with the 50% + tax exemption (mainly in Milan) - 4k+ applied for the €200K/year flat tax in the first half of '24 only - unparalleled lifestyle Portofino is in 2 hours. Lake Garda is just ninety minutes away. You can be skiing in Courmayeur beneath Mont Blanc in two and a half hours. Florence? Just 1.45 hours by train. We are back.

@thealepalombo We live in Milano, where things are messy, although they are trying, but I hate how slow It is! Would you say a move to Rome is now recommended?

Vibe shift in Rome, Italy happening now: I just spoke with my friend, also a Roman like me. He lives between Dubai and Bangkok. For the past ten years, we've always debriefed every time we returned to visit Rome. After years of brutally honest complaints and a shared sense of sadness over the city's decline, it finally feels like Rome is making an epic comeback. Finally. Cleaner streets, historic neighborhoods becoming pedestrian zones, and people seem less negative overall. You have no idea how happy this makes me. For me, the best months to visit are April/May or September/October. Let me know what you think next time you pass through!

If you only speak English, and only follow English-language news, how can you claim to understand what’s really happening in another country, let alone be an authority on it?

@marclou 4 years I lived there and I loved it! It was amazing, but us non-Kiwis see it very differently than the locals. If money is not a concern, and you don’t travel much, it’s perfect.

New Zealand is so, so, so nice! My wife and I have been here for 3 weeks and we already want to move. Nature is stunning. There are sheep everywhere. It's quiet AF and the air is pure (PM2.5 <3µg/m³ everywhere). You can surf, ski, mountain bike, trail, or hike pretty much anywhere. It's a little paradise if you like outdoor activities. Next to my Airbnb, there's a 6-meter bridge and I can jump in the river after work. This is life. People are kind and open. I'm not a small-talk person but people make it so normal so I've talked to lots of people! Maybe it's like that in the US/Canada too? New Zealand produces a lot of food like milk, vegetables, and berries. It's easy to find delicious, organic, and healthy food. My wife & I are looking for a new home after Bali. We rarely have a crush on a place. But New Zealand feels special. Flip side: - Entrepreneur ecosystem is absent (we're South) - It's far from everything

@levelsio Anecdotal. None of friends growing up ever talked about becoming rich, that was never the goal, the goal was/is a comfortable life. 75% of my childhood friends are self employed, not to be rich, but for the flexibility it gives and the quality of life that gives. 🇳🇴

hot take - If Europeans COULD become rich from starting a business they'd all be starting businesses Europeans love money as much as anyone else

@0x_ale «Great» for nurses, plumbers, and other local workers making ~€1000/month! Even top doctors earn less than the average tech worker. Be mindful of locals and give back. I lived there 4 years, and it slowly felt like they were being left out of the booming investments.

Lisbon Is Secretly Becoming Europe’s Silicon Valley—And This Is Just the Beginning. I moved here two years ago to launch the Bitcoin Ecosystem Golden Visa Fund. Since then, I’ve seen something wild: Lisbon has MORE BUILDERS per capita than Berlin or London. More energy. More ambition. And here’s what’s even crazier: • 20% flat tax for local income for tech workers • 0% tax on foreign income • 0% crypto tax after a 1-year hold • Half the living costs of other tech hubs • Perfect weather (sorry, London) Portugal isn’t just welcoming founders. It’s actively engineering a better ecosystem. While the rest of Europe pushes talent away, Lisbon rolls out NHR 2.0—a regime built for innovation (local employment position required). And yet… one massive problem remains. Bureaucracy. Slow, complex, painful—classic EU. But that’s about to change. The 28th regime is coming, and it’s about to flip the script: • Nevada/Texas-style framework. Hire, fire, incorporate, dissolve—EASILY. • SAFE-based investments, single model. No nonsense, just clarity. • San Francisco weather, but at a fraction of the cost. • The only EU country with a legit, well-tested tech tax regime. (NHR 2.0) Nobody’s ready for what’s about to happen. Lisbon is the only city where you can build a unicorn while surfing on your lunch break. If you’ve felt the shift, drop a comment. I want to know...do you see what I see?

@dannypostma Same thing happens also on LinkedIn. When you have to authenticate LinkedIn to read something when you click a link, it’s a red flag 🚩

I almost got phished 🤯 Look at this super sophisticated attempt, holysh*t.

WFH gave families a glimpse what flexibility gives and maybe even thinking about more kids without falling into financial ruin. Now it’s back to the office. No flexibility, and rising costs. How does the U.S. expect people to help with the decline in babies born? @elonmusk?

@levelsio You’re looking for a add to cart solution for saunas for individuals in Portugal?? Any reasonable entrepreneur would not see the benefit to build, host, monitor and service such for the 0.1%. This is a B2B product in a relationship based culture and you should approach it such.

The reason why Portugal is so poor is you literally can't "just" BUY things here You go to a gym equipment store here and there is literally no BUY button You HAVE to go through a contact form on their website and hope they'll reply to your message (I've tried with other shops and majority of the times they don't) If they reply it's usually days or weeks later, if ata ll A month ago I emailed sauna stores in Portugal to buy a sauna, not a single store has replied to me, it seems impossible to buy a sauna here even if you want to spend a lot of money The only way to buy something here is to call but often they don't pick up the phone either Everything here goes via a contact form or by telephone, or you have to know somebody Imagine having to KNOW somebody to be able to BUY something in 2025 This stuff just boggles my mind A country where so many people are complaining about the cost of living and poverty, but it's impossible to spend your money here Of course, it's a different culture, so you wanna adapt, but are you really going to suffer through a process where you want to SPEND money in an economy every time just because you want to adapt to the culture and spend locally? So once again I'm sending my money to an American company, because I can do it online, pay online, without the hassle of talking to someone for days, and I know they will deliver it and if I have a problem happily pick it up and refund me In this case ROGUE, an American gym equipment store, and obviously there is a BUY button and then they ship it anywhere worldwide (because they set up warehouses near you), 10/10 THANK YOU AMERICA 🇺🇸

@visegrad24 Not true. Ridiculous to say Italians no longer go there 🤣 I live there, @visegrad24 journalists don’t 🙄

Newly arrived North African asylum seekers record a message for Italians on New Year’s Eve while celebrating in front of the Milan Cathedral: ”F*ck Italy & f*ck the police” Italians used to gather in front of the cathedral for NYE midnight but no longer go there for some reason

@RepMariaSalazar @elonmusk How many STEM graduates in the U.S. are unemployed or underemployed? With ~700k STEM grads/year and assuming a 40-year workforce, that’s ~28 million STEM-educated people in the U.S. Do we really have a shortage, or is it a placement problem?

U.S. universities produce ~700k STEM graduates per year.   We need to fill 3.5 million STEM jobs by next year. To compete with Communist China, we desperately need to fill this gap. Should we update our immigration system to help us win in the AI & Cyber race? CC @elonmusk

@DMichaelTripi Is it surprising that the guy who axed Twitter’s staff in weeks and fights unions thinks H-1Bs are perfect? It’s corporate convenience at its finest.

The amount of H-1B employees Tesla has is absolutely staggering.

@ContraireSous Level 1 isn’t unskilled, it’s entry-level for specialized roles, still requiring degrees. And even Level 2 (34%) or 3 (50%) wages can significantly undercut market rates for mid/senior workers. The system often prioritizes minimum compliance over true labor cost parity.

@paularnesen Well level 1 is unskilled labor & not relevant to this discussion. Level 2 is set at 34% of the median wage for that job, based on DOL's data. Level 3 is 50%. Level 4 has to be at least 67% of the median wage. Going through this process is not saving $ on skilled labor.

Let's look at this whole H-1B debate going on. Why do companies hire immigrants for specialised roles in the US? Let’s break down the economics and incentives behind H-1B. 🧵

8/ The H-1B program isn’t broken, it’s being exploited. And the ones benefiting most are the corporations that already have everything.

7/ Meanwhile, smaller businesses are squeezed out, local talent pipelines shrink, and the entire premise of the H-1B program - to share global talent - is undermined. This isn’t about talent shortages. It’s about Big Tech controlling the game.

Big Tech is playing you. The H-1B visa program was supposed to bring the best talent to the U.S., but companies like Google, Amazon, and Tesla have turned it into their personal cheat code. Here’s how they’re gaming the system and why it’s hurting everyone else. 🧵