I can't judge. Everyone dies, but not many die awesome. The sad fact is that even though he died tragically young, he still probably provided far more both in money and example for his kids than I will be able to manage with a lifetime of cautious mediocrity.
Intrade CEO dies climbing Mt. Everest
91–100 of 115 posts
Re: Intrade CEO dies climbing Mt. Everest
#92Sad. 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
I don't understand all this harsh judgement, especially from the HN crowd. Who are you to say what he should or shouldn't do? He essentially died from a freak accident that couldn't be predicted ahead of time. Telling him that he shouldn't do something because he's married with children is like someone telling you you shouldn't pursue a dream (whether that be climbing a mountain or trying an innovative startup with a…
All these differing opinions really highlights what you hear a lot of mountain climbers say about how people either "get it", or the sport is a complete enigma to them.
Re: Intrade CEO dies climbing Mt. Everest
#93This article: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1978295 has stuck with me since it was posted a while ago. I guess everyone who goes there knows the dangers, and would be prepared for the worst.
That was my first thought too. What a selfish waste of human life.
Re: Intrade CEO dies climbing Mt. Everest
#94Sad. 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
Of that 10% of deaths, According to Chris Warner (a well known mountaineer) 4 out of 5 of them are due to human error.
Re: Intrade CEO dies climbing Mt. Everest
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Tasteless? I don't think you're getting it. He risked his life completely unnecessarily while he needed to be a father. What he has done is categorically selfish. Your defense of his actions is that "It was his lifelong ambition." If you believe that then you already acknowledge that his action is selfish; his ambition caused him to abandon his responsibilities as a father and husband. I don't see it as much as criti…
I think this is where we differ. You believe that because he took a risk for the goal of something other than his wife or kids, which you believe are his primary priority, and because that risk did not pay off, he is selfish.
I just want to point out that this is a very slippery slope. Does this mean that fathers in the army are being selfish for going to war rather than staying at home with their kids?
What about businessmen who work long hours and neglect their families?
There are many ways to live your life. This man chose a risky path, and sadly was killed before he could watch his children grow up. In his mind, perhaps, the risk was outweighed by the benefits of being able to tell his kids that he had fulfilled his dreams.
> I would hope that at least the wife realizes the moral > implications of her husband's decision at this point.
That to me sums up why I disagree with your comment. I hope his wife all the best in recovering from her loss, and raising her kids. The moralizing of some uninformed person on the internet are completely irrelevant to her at this point.
Re: Intrade CEO dies climbing Mt. Everest
#96Someone else mentioned Anatoli Boukreev in relation to the 1996 season on Everest.
If you want to understand more how high-altitude climbers think, this makes for a perfect read: http://www.amazon.com/Above-Clouds-Diaries-High-Altitude-Mou...
Re: Intrade CEO dies climbing Mt. Everest
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
But I have to say - climbing Everest when your wife is due to give birth - not cool. Not to mention two sons, two and three years old respectively. There is a season of life for climbing mountains. This was not it.
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.
> Does that mean that he should give up on his dreams, due to bad timing?
I don't know about giving up on dreams in the abstract, but yes, having kids should change the priorities in your life and that will most likely mean giving up some of your own wants, big and small, in order to care of your kids. If you aren't comfortable with that change, then you shouldn't make the choice to have kids.
Re: Intrade CEO dies climbing Mt. Everest
#98Well he joined the crowd. Everest is littered with dead, exposed bodies.
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1978295
How about running a marathon instead. Or is that not expensive enough?
Re: Intrade CEO dies climbing Mt. Everest
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
But I have to say - climbing Everest when your wife is due to give birth - not cool. Not to mention two sons, two and three years old respectively. There is a season of life for climbing mountains. This was not it.
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.
Re: Intrade CEO dies climbing Mt. Everest
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
Aside from possibility of interest in the exposed query, what's the point of copying as pasting the error you just got?
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.