How Chris McCandless Died • Hacker News Board

Re: How Chris McCandless Died

#131

Post by chris_wot » Sat, Sep 14, 2013, 1:29 AM UTC

drcode wrote: post #120

chris_wot wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oops, forgot to times by 100. My bad. That's 0.000014285571%. But then we can remove over 7 billion people who have never made a basic mathematical error, as you're right - the ability to do arithmetic is a critical skill in extreme mountaineering. This leaves us with a world population of 1. It must feel great to be the only inerrant mathematical mountaineer in the world - was that skill learned, or is it innate?

I admit making fun of your math was a bit trollish of me :)

Every comment from the first one you made in this thread has been trollish.

Re: How Chris McCandless Died

#132

Post by rdtsc » Sat, Sep 14, 2013, 4:36 AM UTC

grecy wrote: post #122

rdtsc wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Guy goes into the wilderness unprepared. Dies. People say he is a dumb ass. Most agree. Other guy climbs a mountain that others have climbed, also unprepared -- hero, pushing the boundaries, expanding humanity's reach. Please...

> Other guy climbs a mountain that others have climbed, also unprepared You're saying he's unprepared because he didn't take every single possible device to aid him (oxygen). What about all the people that take every single thing possible, spend years and years training, are extremely prepared, and still die anyway. Are they dumb asses?

> Are they dumb asses?

Less so. Depending how informed and prepared they are.

Now people can kill themselves if they want to. Certainly only so much can be done to warn or stop them, but it also doesn't make them immune from being called dumb asses.

For example I don't see how knowing the risks and choosing to ignore them while climbing a mountain and getting killed in the process is more noble or worthy of praise than getting drunk and wanting to launch fireworks from your shirt pocket and getting killed in the process.

Re: How Chris McCandless Died

#133

Post by Casseres » Sat, Sep 14, 2013, 9:25 PM UTC

drcode wrote: post #119

chris_wot wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you say "we all do things like this everyday", what precisely do you do on a daily basis that is the equivalent of climbing the highest mountain on earth?

We all do things like help teach children, or create online resources for others, or add some detail to a small corner of science or other area of human knowledge. These are all more valuable than risking your life and littering a landmark and then telling people you're the 1473rd person to climb Everest. (Mt. Everest's filthy secret: It's a dump http://theweek.com/article/index/244854/mt-everests-filthy-s... )

You have a point. In the grand scheme of life, you are right. While I do volunteer to help others, I also like to occasionally do things for myself. That is what I was asking about.

Interesting article too, thank you for sharing.

Re: How Chris McCandless Died

#134

Post by zerooneinfinity » Mon, Sep 23, 2013, 4:35 PM UTC

jusben1369 wrote: post #41

I wonder if we aren't starting to miss the forest for the trees here. Perhaps this is the true, final reason. However, if he'd fallen down the steps on that bus and broken his leg he would most likely be dead. He basically put himself in a position where he had such a small margin for error that it's not all that surprising he didn't make it. I backpacked Central and South America for quite some time pre-internet and…

Yea I mean the entire debate shouldn't even be about whether he was stupid to do this. Because of him, we are able to say in hindsight that travelers should be weary of these kinds of things.