8 very Finnish reasons Finland needs sisu (and you do too)

British author and creator of Very Finnish Problems, Joel Willans explores the mysterious force that keeps Finland punctual, forest-ready, and weirdly calm about -20°C blizzards. With eight gloriously Finnish case examples, he showcases how sisu is the national survival software, and why the rest of us could probably use the upgrade too.

Joel Willans is an award-winning author and the creator of the social media sensation Very Finnish Problems. An Englishman living in Helsinki, he shares humorous insights into Finnish culture with over 1.3 million followers, including prime ministers, presidents, and sports stars. Now semi-fluent in silence and suspicious of unnecessary words, he’s still somehow managed to get his fiction broadcast on BBC Radio, and his articles published in outlets as varied as The Sunday Times, Yle, and Cosmopolitan.