Rock climbing and the economics of innovation
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Rock climbing and the economics of innovation
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Re: Rock climbing and the economics of innovation
#2Not to mention that the sheer amount of people exposed to climbing is at least 10,000 times higher than it was when the first ascent took place.
Re: Rock climbing and the economics of innovation
#3I surprisingly agree with the opinion put out. Shoes have made a night-and-day difference. Also Alex was able to practice climbing indoors on artificial walls no matter the weather outside, starting from an early age.
And also Alex is the very definition of an Outlier. Everything kind of came together.
Re: Rock climbing and the economics of innovation
#4"And to return to Alex Honnold, perhaps the most important lesson a free-market loving economist should draw is that sometimes people will do extraordinary things without the motivation of money."
My dad likes to visit the same coffee shop every morning, where he sees more or less the same people. He likes to show his friends pictures of his son on big routes in Yosemite or the Andes, preferring the ones with dangling-portaledge or freezing thousand-yard-stare shock value. They almost invariably ask, "does he get paid for this?" I ask him how he restrains himself from asking, "have you ever done anything for fun?"
Re: Rock climbing and the economics of innovation
#5Someone should invite that economist to a modern rock climbing gym. Then explain every piece of technology that made those wall designs affordable and commonplace in most major cities. Being able to train in state-of-the-art facilities, focusing exactly on the moves you need to make, day and night, rain or shine, that's crucial.
Re: Rock climbing and the economics of innovation
#6I surprisingly agree with the opinion put out. Shoes have made a night-and-day difference. Also Alex was able to practice climbing indoors on artificial walls no matter the weather outside, starting from an early age. And also Alex is the very definition of an Outlier. Everything kind of came together.
To maybe give an idea on how important those shoes that Alex wore were - or at least how perfect they were for the ascent: the athlete that designed them w/Sportiva, Tommy Caldwell put up all but two of the free routes on El Capitan (so only 8 or so in total), including the hardest free route on the wall. The shoes were effectively made for that one area.
Re: Rock climbing and the economics of innovation
#7"And to return to Alex Honnold, perhaps the most important lesson a free-market loving economist should draw is that sometimes people will do extraordinary things without the motivation of money." My dad likes to visit the same coffee shop every morning, where he sees more or less the same people. He likes to show his friends pictures of his son on big routes in Yosemite or the Andes, preferring the ones with danglin…
Your dad and you both sound like nice and smart people. I smiled when reading the last sentence.
Re: Rock climbing and the economics of innovation
#8A lesser known free solo in El Potero Chico, Mexico done by Alex many years back: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Phl82D57P58
Re: Rock climbing and the economics of innovation
#9"And to return to Alex Honnold, perhaps the most important lesson a free-market loving economist should draw is that sometimes people will do extraordinary things without the motivation of money." My dad likes to visit the same coffee shop every morning, where he sees more or less the same people. He likes to show his friends pictures of his son on big routes in Yosemite or the Andes, preferring the ones with danglin…
It may be my bias, but I've met plenty of people trained in economics that are really not particularly motivated by money, but rather by doing things they find fun and interesting.
One of them recently was sailing around BC looking for new sea to summit ascents.
There's essentially no hope that their activities will yield them any money.
Re: Rock climbing and the economics of innovation
#10I think that the most recent reelrock with AH and TC speed climbing the nose gives way more context on the same topic.
The technology really is the same in both the speed climb and the solo,; the ability to catch long falls without much human intervention is the big deal in being able to rehearse the moves at a point where they can be done "safely".
You can try to divorce technique (knowledge) from technology, but how we use a tool is so much of what a tool is.