This is right out of "The Left Hand of Darkness."
Colin O’Brady Completes Crossing of Antarctica with Final 32-Hour Push
91–100 of 134 posts
Re: Colin O’Brady Completes Crossing of Antarctica with Final 32-Hour Push
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
Having been part of the Ironman community for a while now, I can say endurance folks are definitely different than your average person. Often very humble, they like meaningful, big, challenging goals that redefine “normal.”
Do they get a kick out of overcoming suffering,.doing something really difficult or what drives them? In the end they don't achieve anything useful. I can relate to it somehow. When I did kickboxing I sometimes wondered why I let myself get beat up for no money, fame or any other reward. Never really understood my motivation other than that I had it.
Everyone I know has different reasons. Some are more altruistic than others. Sometimes it’s done in honor of others who cannot do it, eg disabled, fallen vets, etc. Sometimes just because people want to be more than a desk jockey.
Re: Colin O’Brady Completes Crossing of Antarctica with Final 32-Hour Push
#93Is it easier now because of climate change? (Not to take anything away from the accomplishment, it might actually be harder due to how climate change works.)
If anything I would wonder if it’s easier because they can contact the outside world. Having a sat phone, gps, and a sympathetic ear had to help. At one point he got a call from Elton John! Imagine the morale boost :) also, knowing there is an escape hatch. Someone to send a rescue team etc...
It was actually Paul Simon that he got the call from. Agreed it must have been a huge morale boost.
Re: Colin O’Brady Completes Crossing of Antarctica with Final 32-Hour Push
#94Just this week I read a story about Henry Worsley who died trying the same thing: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/02/12/the-white-dark... . After reading, I wonder if you have to a certain level of insanity for doing something like this.
I read that and just thought this guy is a moron. There's no discovery, no profit, just vanity.
What have you done?
Re: Colin O’Brady Completes Crossing of Antarctica with Final 32-Hour Push
#95Is it easier now because of climate change? (Not to take anything away from the accomplishment, it might actually be harder due to how climate change works.)
At that temp 2 degrees is negligible.
Re: Colin O’Brady Completes Crossing of Antarctica with Final 32-Hour Push
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because it's interesting.
Is it interesting? It sounds mind-numbingly dull trudging across 921 miles of ice.
It's interesting to explore, it's interesting to endure, it's interesting to experience new physical, mental, and emotional states of being conferred by these unique circumstances.
Re: Colin O’Brady Completes Crossing of Antarctica with Final 32-Hour Push
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is it interesting? It sounds mind-numbingly dull trudging across 921 miles of ice.
More interesting than browsing HN 365 days of the year..
Based on experience, I feel like somewhere around mile 250 I’d be wishing I was at home browsing HN and wondering why I ever left.
Re: Colin O’Brady Completes Crossing of Antarctica with Final 32-Hour Push
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do they get a kick out of overcoming suffering,.doing something really difficult or what drives them? In the end they don't achieve anything useful. I can relate to it somehow. When I did kickboxing I sometimes wondered why I let myself get beat up for no money, fame or any other reward. Never really understood my motivation other than that I had it.
Is it really that weird? We are all going to die eventually someday. If you want to risk your life doing something you love I think that’s your call, as long as you don’t risk hurting other people in the process. I mean, what do you think you keep after you die anyway? Does it really matter in the end if you sat at a desk for 40 years and then died quietly in your bed as opposed to falling off a mountain at 40somethi…
It depends what you wish to accomplish in your life and who you have depending on you.
Re: Colin O’Brady Completes Crossing of Antarctica with Final 32-Hour Push
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
This level of insanity is not as foreign as you might think. The feeling of accomplishment I get from climbing a mountain, finishing a marathon or a long bike trip is comparable to the feeling I get after taping out a chip, shipping a major software release or delivering first-of-a-kind hardware to a customer. For some of us, getting Tetris to work in Conway's Game of Life is insanity. For other people, walking acros…
Except that guy literally died. Nobody dies playing on a computer and it's pretty rare to die from running or biking in civilization.
People kind of do, since the lifestyle of sitting down 18 hours a day at a computer is very unhealthy.