In an NRK interview a few years ago, it was said that I was not interested in working for companies like Google — and that instead, I was looking for “the meaning of life”. Now, however, I’ve accepted a job at Google anyway. I’ll try to explain why.

First, I can mention that the headline, which made a point of me looking for the meaning of life, was never that accurate. At the time, I already felt I knew what I needed to know about it. (I’ve since started trying to write about it, feel free to read what I’ve written so far.) So the problem wasn’t that I was looking for the meaning of life, instead it was because the meaning I saw, needed me to develop myself in ways I couldn’t easily do if I worked at Google. It was much easier to do it when I worked at Kongsberg Spacetec, because they gave me a lot of freedom. I’m very thankful to them for that.

For a while now, however, I’ve started to feel ready to move on. I’ve done most of the things I needed to do before taking such a job. But life has given me an even more important reason.

A few years ago I got to know a person who works for Google, and he’s been working to start a very interesting project there. I don’t want to write details here, but it’s a project that we think could be very important for the future of the Earth. And he said he’d love my help, as I had almost exactly the kind of programming skills he wanted. And, for me, it was exactly the kind of programming challenge I’ve been waiting for. Interesting, fun, and with a decent potential for making a difference. Doesn’t that sound like exactly the kind of thing that would bring meaning to someone’s life?

And so, now I’m here in Zürich, Switzerland, working for Google. It’s a huge change from my previous life, but I think that right now, this is where I need to be. This is where the meaning of my life is right now, in this particular phase of my life. It’s entirely possible that sometime in the future, when the time is right, I will leave Google again. But until then, I will do what I need to do here, and try to enjoy it.