Intrade CEO dies climbing Mt. Everest • Hacker News Board

Re: Intrade CEO dies climbing Mt. Everest

#111

Post by JabavuAdams » Thu, Jun 02, 2011, 2:09 AM UTC

pandeiro wrote: post #99

JabavuAdams wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, maybe he had kids before he got to climb Everest. Does that mean that he should give up on his dreams, due to bad timing? There's really never a good time to climb Everest. It might be much better for the kids to have a dead father than a bitter, reluctant father.

I upvoted you for the 'never a good time...' line lolz, but your last statement is truly absurd. I assume you don't have kids. Nothing replaces a parent, even a flawed one.

> Nothing replaces a parent, even a flawed one.

That's easily refuted -- it depends on how flawed.

Talk to some kids who have been abused, abandoned or had debilitatingly mentally ill parents.

Compare with kids whose parents divorced or who lost a parent to disease.

Re: Intrade CEO dies climbing Mt. Everest

#112

Post by yelsgib » Thu, Jun 02, 2011, 2:18 AM UTC

samtp wrote: post #105

yelsgib wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't criticize a decision outside of the context of the person who makes it.

You're right. He probably had a deadly disease and the only cure was at the top of the highest mountain on earth. Honestly what context do you possibly need? There aren't really a lot of externalities here

My point is that you don't know his situation, so you can't judge his actions. You don't know how many "externalities" there are (whatever an "externality" is).

The fact that you can't imagine a worthy justification (in terms of his value system or your own) doesn't mean that one doesn't exist. And no, you cannot categorically deny the existence thereof.

Re: Intrade CEO dies climbing Mt. Everest

#113

Post by dp1234 » Thu, Jun 02, 2011, 2:30 AM UTC

aplusbi wrote: post #86

gamble wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everest may be statistically less dangerous, but I suspect that's because the vast majority of climbers today (really, all except a handful of Sherpas at the start of the season) are climbing with fixed ropes on guided ascents. Everest today is still a dangerous mountain, but the dangers are themselves statistical (bad weather, illness, etc) more than technical.

I think the the fact that the dangers are mostly statistical is what makes Everest so dangerous. Not to make light of the difficulty in summiting Everest, but you can literally just hike to the top. This invites a lot of amateur climbers who lack the experience to even recognize dangerous situations, much less deal with them.

One of the guides in a documentary on it said that if Everest was at sea level, you would take your kids to summit it. But the altitude makes it a completely different animal. I wonder what the statistics are on frostbite and amputated body parts (fingers, toes). All of the documentaries I've watched seem to include a pretty high rate of some kind of frostbite in many of the climbers.

Re: Intrade CEO dies climbing Mt. Everest

#114

Post by Hisoka » Thu, Jun 02, 2011, 1:50 PM UTC

ColinWright wrote: post #47

There is a time and place for everything, so we are told. personally, I believe that HN is not the place for this. And if HN is now the place for this, then perhaps HN's time has now passed. Other people's personal lives are their own. They make their choices, the people they share their lives with share their choices, by choice or otherwise. Leave them alone. Leave it alone. Go build something useful.

I disagree. We live in an isolated world where noone shares anything, and as a result ppl feel lonely.

This sorta stuff needs to be discussed

Re: Intrade CEO dies climbing Mt. Everest

#115

Post by codexon » Thu, Jun 02, 2011, 9:16 PM UTC

sorbus wrote: post #100

codexon wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As oxtopus said, this is something I never hope to see on a trading site. Especially just for counting views. And really? 5 downvotes for saying that the link does't work? This community has really declined.

> And really? 5 downvotes for saying that the link does't work? This community has really declined. Downvotes for an error message posted with no context[1] on the other hand, are entirely appropriate. [1] The error appears to have been fixed, so reading the article provides no context - I didn't even realize that that was where it had appeared until reading brk's comment.

Isn't the context clear? Do I really need to say "This error message is the whole content of the story?" Aren't you guys a little smarter than that?

I received those downvotes the entire time the website was down.