– What is occupying you right now?
– I’m working on a book about the history of economics in Norway. It covers 150 years of history, and at times some quite intricate theories and connections that I’m trying to present in an accessible way. There’s some urgency to finishing it within the time frame of my temporary position, so all my working hours go into that – and of course I carry it around in the back of my mind for the rest of the day as well.
– If you had to explain to an eight-year-old what you do at work, in three short sentences, what would you say?
– I do this a lot, because I know many eight-year-olds. I usually say that I write books – that’s easy to understand. I also sometimes tell them that the books are about people who lived, and things that happened, before both they and I were born. That goes down well too. I don’t usually mention the articles, but sometimes I also say that I’m a teacher for very big children who have just become adults.
– What motivates you at work?
– I’m motivated by finding out new things. It doesn’t have to be a completely new detail from the past, although that is of course exciting; it can just as well be those moments when I feel I’m able to see something in the past in a new way that gives deeper insight. I’m also motivated by trying to make difficult things a bit simpler and easier to understand. That’s what our job is, I sometimes think – not the opposite.
– If you were to do something completely different, what would it be?
– Because I sit a lot, I often think it would be nice to have a job where I’m more physically active. And I like everything to do with gardening, so I could happily have been a municipal gardener – even though I’m sure it’s a tough profession.
– What do you do to switch off?
– It’s nice to think about the history of economics in Norway, but for my own sake it can be quite good to get away from it now and then – to switch off completely. Then I need to do something I can become just as absorbed in as in the history of economics in Norway, for example playing in a band. Or gardening, then.