Intrade CEO dies climbing Mt. Everest • Hacker News Board

Re: Intrade CEO dies climbing Mt. Everest

#31

Post by kenjackson » Wed, Jun 01, 2011, 5:31 PM UTC

poundy wrote: post #26

pessimist wrote: post #9

Sad. But I have to say - climbing Everest when your wife is due to give birth - not cool. Overall death rate for Everest climbers is pretty close to 3% - pretty high (although its been falling). Edit: 3% is for climbers above base camp - for summit climbers its close to 10%! According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_Mount_Everest_disaster

> Sad. But I have to say - climbing Everest when your wife is due to give birth - not cool. I believe this is exactly why he is the CEO of a popular company and others like me are not. He takes risks most of us avoid for various reasons!

I believe they're not strongly correlated. I know a lot of people that take risks that most of us avoid. Most of these people share very few characteristics of your typical CEO. Half of them end up on YouTube with clips that begin with, "Check this out...".

Re: Intrade CEO dies climbing Mt. Everest

#32

Post by samtp » Wed, Jun 01, 2011, 5:35 PM UTC

peterbraden wrote: post #28

pessimist wrote: post #9

Sad. But I have to say - climbing Everest when your wife is due to give birth - not cool. Overall death rate for Everest climbers is pretty close to 3% - pretty high (although its been falling). Edit: 3% is for climbers above base camp - for summit climbers its close to 10%! According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_Mount_Everest_disaster

It was his lifelong ambition. Whether it was selfish or not is between him and his wife - let's not pass judgement on the dead.

If you can pass judgement on the living then you can do the same to someone who has died. While putting the dead on a pedestal may comfort our own feelings about death, it doesn't escape the reality of their actions.

Re: Intrade CEO dies climbing Mt. Everest

#33

Post by thomasgerbe » Wed, Jun 01, 2011, 5:35 PM UTC

jemfinch wrote: post #25

raganwald wrote: post #18

I am not sad for him personally. We all die, he chose his time and place. Attempting to summit Everest is meaningful in part because one out of every ten climbers making the final push doesn't make it home alive. Compare and contrast his death to Bob Parsons' cowardly choice of shooting an elephant. Bob was never in any meaningful danger, where is the courage in killing an animal that can't shoot back? I am sorry for…

John Delaney left behind two sons and a pregnant wife pursuing a meaningless accomplishment. Bob Parsons killed an elephant who was destroying crops and fed an African village. I'm troubled by your use of "meaningful" in describing danger. Danger is not meaningful in itself. An act does not become meaningful because 10% of the people who attempt it die. Acts are meaningful based on their impact on the world around th…

Those darn elephants trying to eat. That'll learn 'em!

Re: Intrade CEO dies climbing Mt. Everest

#34

Post by tptacek » Wed, Jun 01, 2011, 5:36 PM UTC

jemfinch wrote: post #25

raganwald wrote: post #18

I am not sad for him personally. We all die, he chose his time and place. Attempting to summit Everest is meaningful in part because one out of every ten climbers making the final push doesn't make it home alive. Compare and contrast his death to Bob Parsons' cowardly choice of shooting an elephant. Bob was never in any meaningful danger, where is the courage in killing an animal that can't shoot back? I am sorry for…

John Delaney left behind two sons and a pregnant wife pursuing a meaningless accomplishment. Bob Parsons killed an elephant who was destroying crops and fed an African village. I'm troubled by your use of "meaningful" in describing danger. Danger is not meaningful in itself. An act does not become meaningful because 10% of the people who attempt it die. Acts are meaningful based on their impact on the world around th…

I'm confused here too. Isn't elephant population control a problem in Africa?

Re: Intrade CEO dies climbing Mt. Everest

#35

Post by peterbraden » Wed, Jun 01, 2011, 5:36 PM UTC

jemfinch wrote: post #25

raganwald wrote: post #18

I am not sad for him personally. We all die, he chose his time and place. Attempting to summit Everest is meaningful in part because one out of every ten climbers making the final push doesn't make it home alive. Compare and contrast his death to Bob Parsons' cowardly choice of shooting an elephant. Bob was never in any meaningful danger, where is the courage in killing an animal that can't shoot back? I am sorry for…

John Delaney left behind two sons and a pregnant wife pursuing a meaningless accomplishment. Bob Parsons killed an elephant who was destroying crops and fed an African village. I'm troubled by your use of "meaningful" in describing danger. Danger is not meaningful in itself. An act does not become meaningful because 10% of the people who attempt it die. Acts are meaningful based on their impact on the world around th…

to play devils advocate: Elephants are far more endangered than humans. Does something have to propagate the human species to be meaningful, or can non-physical aspirations not be considered meaningful too?

Re: Intrade CEO dies climbing Mt. Everest

#36

Post by jedc » Wed, Jun 01, 2011, 5:38 PM UTC

peterbraden wrote: post #28

pessimist wrote: post #9

Sad. But I have to say - climbing Everest when your wife is due to give birth - not cool. Overall death rate for Everest climbers is pretty close to 3% - pretty high (although its been falling). Edit: 3% is for climbers above base camp - for summit climbers its close to 10%! According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_Mount_Everest_disaster

It was his lifelong ambition. Whether it was selfish or not is between him and his wife - let's not pass judgement on the dead.

His family clearly supported him (based on a few other news outlets that actually interviewed them).

Re: Intrade CEO dies climbing Mt. Everest

#37

Post by Entaroadun » Wed, Jun 01, 2011, 5:39 PM UTC

peterbraden wrote: post #28

pessimist wrote: post #9

Sad. But I have to say - climbing Everest when your wife is due to give birth - not cool. Overall death rate for Everest climbers is pretty close to 3% - pretty high (although its been falling). Edit: 3% is for climbers above base camp - for summit climbers its close to 10%! According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_Mount_Everest_disaster

It was his lifelong ambition. Whether it was selfish or not is between him and his wife - let's not pass judgement on the dead.

Ok this is kind of ridiculous. Really? Really? No I'm quite sure in this case it's definitely selfish, independent of what his wife thinks. And not passing judgement on the dead? Cmon man you have to be trolling.

Re: Intrade CEO dies climbing Mt. Everest

#38

Post by hernan7 » Wed, Jun 01, 2011, 5:45 PM UTC

poundy wrote: post #26

pessimist wrote: post #9

Sad. But I have to say - climbing Everest when your wife is due to give birth - not cool. Overall death rate for Everest climbers is pretty close to 3% - pretty high (although its been falling). Edit: 3% is for climbers above base camp - for summit climbers its close to 10%! According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_Mount_Everest_disaster

> Sad. But I have to say - climbing Everest when your wife is due to give birth - not cool. I believe this is exactly why he is the CEO of a popular company and others like me are not. He takes risks most of us avoid for various reasons!

He was the CEO of a popular company.

Re: Intrade CEO dies climbing Mt. Everest

#39

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jun 01, 2011, 5:47 PM UTC

tcdent wrote: post #30

codexon wrote: post #29

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Aside from possibility of interest in the exposed query, what's the point of copying as pasting the error you just got?

[deleted]

Re: Intrade CEO dies climbing Mt. Everest

#40

Post by peterbraden » Wed, Jun 01, 2011, 5:51 PM UTC

Entaroadun wrote: post #37

peterbraden wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was his lifelong ambition. Whether it was selfish or not is between him and his wife - let's not pass judgement on the dead.

Ok this is kind of ridiculous. Really? Really? No I'm quite sure in this case it's definitely selfish, independent of what his wife thinks. And not passing judgement on the dead? Cmon man you have to be trolling.

I happen to believe that criticizing people that cannot defend themselves is tasteless, and judging situations that I know nothing about is misguided.

I'm sure there is a lot of this story that we will never know, criticism is not going to change anything and if anything is offensive to the bereaved.