Can neither you nor Raemon imagine that there are people out there for whom shooting a 1 in 10 shot climbing Big Hill is a good decision?
It seems to me just the wrong genre from “good decision”. Good decisions are like building new political systems or doing science or navigating existential risks. 31 people who crawled up a mountain and died seems not related to any of the things.
The fearsome part to me is that I am one of these people. They are not that much different from me. My life trajectory will in all likelihood probably make about as much sense looking back on it.
Is it that fun, though? Are surviving mountaineers usually exceptionally happy people? Does the fun of successfully climbing mountains make up for the risk of death? I suspect it does not.
To the sorts of people who become successful mountaineers*, I think probably yes? (it’s not about, like Type 1 fun [enjoying in the moment], it’s more Type 2 fun (rewarding and enjoyable in retrospect). And, it’s less about the mountain, but feeling they’ve pushed themselves to their limit, especially if it was farther than any human has gone before).
*assuming they didn’t get, like, tiger-mom-brainwashed into it, but, I think doing that for mountaineers is pretty rare.
It seems to me just the wrong genre from “good decision”. Good decisions are like building new political systems or doing science or navigating existential risks. 31 people who crawled up a mountain and died seems not related to any of the things.
The fearsome part to me is that I am one of these people. They are not that much different from me. My life trajectory will in all likelihood probably make about as much sense looking back on it.
This comment seems super weird to me. Do good decisions not also include ‘did a thing that was fun or meaningful to you?’
I am thinking in the set of “things you will give your entire life to”, given that these people dedicated themselves to it, and it killed them.
Is it that fun, though? Are surviving mountaineers usually exceptionally happy people? Does the fun of successfully climbing mountains make up for the risk of death? I suspect it does not.
To the sorts of people who become successful mountaineers*, I think probably yes? (it’s not about, like Type 1 fun [enjoying in the moment], it’s more Type 2 fun (rewarding and enjoyable in retrospect). And, it’s less about the mountain, but feeling they’ve pushed themselves to their limit, especially if it was farther than any human has gone before).
*assuming they didn’t get, like, tiger-mom-brainwashed into it, but, I think doing that for mountaineers is pretty rare.