the Netherlands connection

[millwood]

I noticed that quite a few forum members are from northern europe, the netherlands in particular.

why is that? something in the water or air there makes people interested in diy?

just curious.

[Magura]

You could say it something in the water.

In northern europe you find many small companies, hence the mindset.....if they can...so can i/- we

Since the wast majority of companies are small, less than 100 employes, its easy to get the DIY spirit going, we have in many cases acces to doing our own stuff at work after hours...and so on.

So as Cyclotron says "its the water"


Magura

[Leeuwarden]

Well, I'm from the Netherlands. And I don't understand a thing about electronics. Still I managed to build a pair of Aleph 5's which sound absolutley great! (Actually, that's an understatement...) I'm also trying to build a nonos DAC (dddac1543) and I have a diy cd-player waiting in a drawer for me. I also plan to build another set of Aleph 5's to make my speakers active... I already got a Marchand XM-9 xo...
I have absolutley no idea why I'm doing this. It's a disease.



Jan

[dhaen]

Well the population of Europe is similar to the USA. So expect to see loads of us....And those damn Dutch are such good engineers!

[jean-paul]

Originally posted by dhaen
Well the population of Europe is similar to the USA. So expect to see loads of us....And those damn Dutch are such good engineers!

I am glad to see that there is someone in this world who sees our qualities.

Magura has a point but not being dutch he is disqualified

Seriously, it strikes me too that so many dutch are busy with either audio or computers. Penetration of cdplayers was fastest and in a few years 70 % of the households had one. Highest in the world. Same with dvdplayers and in a lesser degree with dvd-recorders because of economic malaise at the moment ( where not right now ? ). The rate of changing/buying pc's is so high in the Netherlands that almost every familiy has more than one at home. I believe we have a broadly accepted and used second hand circuit because of it as well. The most popular website was www.marktplaats.nl till recently.

IMO it has something to do with our calvinistic background too and our thing wanting to buy good quality for a good price and always wanting things to be better. I don't know about your country but here there are a *lot* of big stores for DIY things in houses ( home improvement ). The dutch realise that when they do it themselves it'll be cheaper. They only forget it'll take time that they pay themselves by spending their scarce free time. When it comes to "luxury" items there is always a legitimite reason for buying that new cdplayer/ cell phone / computer.

Mmm, there is a word for that.

[Magura]

Originally posted by jean-paul




Magura has a point but not being dutch he is disqualified

As i remember the first post in this thread...it said northern europeans........

Now considering the dutch language ( a mix of german, english and a sore throat), you should be happy to be counted in as northern europeans.....you dont sound like such

Magura

[millwood]

Originally posted by jean-paul
IMO it has something to do with our calvinistic background too and our thing wanting to buy good quality for a good price and always wanting things to be better.

but there are other peoples in the world who strive for the best prices and aren't into diy the way the dutch does. the chinese for example came to my mind: one of the very first things they will ask for in negotiation is "tell me how low your price will go", and that's from personal experience.

Originally posted by jean-paul
The dutch realise that when they do it themselves it'll be cheaper.

do luxury goods / services sell well there?

Originally posted by jean-paul
Mmm, there is a word for that.

frugal?

[kelticwizard]

I understand that Northern Europeans like to go to Spain for their winter vacations.

Looking at a map, I see that Madrid is actually north of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and I sure never heard of anyone looking forward to being in Philly in January.

What gives?

[jean-paul]

a mix of german, english and a sore throat

LOL

Magura, again you have a point I am happy we can be counted in as northern europeans. It is a bit degrading to our beautiful laguage but I can live with it. It was very close once to become the standard language in the America of that time ... Now only if we hadn't sold New Amsterdam ( New York )

[jean-paul]

Originally posted by millwood



but there are other peoples in the world who strive for the best prices and aren't into diy the way the dutch does. the chinese for example came to my mind: one of the very first things they will ask for in negotiation is "tell me how low your price will go", and that's from personal experience.




do luxury goods / services sell well there?




frugal?

I think the chinese *only* look at the price almost regardless of quality whereas the dutch want a good price for quality goods. Maybe it is better to say they want the lowest price for the best quality

Luxury goods sell well despite everybody complaining about the higher prices since the Euro became our standard money. Since the Euro came our living standard has gone down and I think it is good to realise how many good years we have known. Not everybody in the world can say that.

Frugal is the word ! It's written on our foreheads.

Kelticwizard, when you would live in the Netherlands you would understand why we like the weather in Spain so much, even in January...