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Comment by FPGAhacker | Hacker News Reader

I don't know, but it's an interesting thought. What drives someone do to this? I'm in awe of it. It seems to me that it has to be tied to finding meaning in life one way or another.

I have to wonder though, how long does it take for the afterglow of such a massive accomplishment to wear off and to start asking yourself "what now?"

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I have the same thought when I see presidential campaigns. I don't think a balanced person would put themselves and their families through that. You have to be some kind of crazy to do this. Maybe we need these extreme people, but I am not sure we should take them as something to aspire to.

I think about this a lot.

We would have better leadership if it wasn’t such an objectively terrible job.

That's an interesting point about Henry Worsley - he was clearly an excellent leader but he couldn't rise in the UK military (and I suspect this is the case with many organisations) because above a certain point the job is about politics rather than leadership.

There's an interview with Alex Honnold where he says he was already thinking about his next challenge during the last stretch of El Capitan.

I personally can't understand these ongoing Bernoulli experiments, surely something in these people's mind differs profoundly from mine.

They do - their amygdala.

"fMRI testing at the Medical University of South Carolina tilted the scales toward precisely that explanation — an underactive amygdala, not a negligent mother — by confirming that Honnold’s fear circuitry really does fire with less vigor than most."

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/09/opinion/el-capitan-my-el-...

Honnold seemed pretty down to earth during his last few interviews. He seemed very willing to acknowledge that he doesn't have a good idea of what might be next for him, and that El Cap may end up being his last "big" challenge. Granted, his perspective may have changed with a little more time for reflection.

If you have not yet seen "Free Solo", it is an interesting movie because it delves into the relationship between him and his "I just want to be happy" girlfriend which touches on some of his mindset to pursue perfection.

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.

Because it's interesting.

Is it interesting? It sounds mind-numbingly dull trudging across 921 miles of ice.

well you go up and down some mountains, see strange ice formations that don't exist anywhere at all, get to tweet out sappy tweets every evening, go where no/few men/women have gone before and all.

You make it sound like a nice stroll in the park, not something that exhausts you to and beyond and your limit and tries to.kill and harm you every day.

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.

How do people like you even get out of bed? Have you never felt accomplishment in doing something challenging?

"accomplishment" != "interesting"

I'm proud when I set a new PR time running, but it's not exactly interesting.

On the (unfortunately) few, rare occasions I've actually pushed myself to my limits (physical, mental, emotional, or otherwise), I've felt more of a sense of accomplishment and a drive to push further, in any of those domains, not just the one I pushed in, than I've ever had before. I certainly wouldn't claim to have anything figured out in the realm except on a personal level, but for me, every time I achieve something that seemed unachievable it's like it unlocks something in every other part of my life.

I think the interesting part is that any extreme scenario requires very specific and likely innovative solutions — its a difficult optimization problem that any engineer would recognize as strangely santisfying. Actually executing the task with your own life at risk is outside of the standard engineering experience, but to have both must make success outstandingly satisfying

You can't be serious? We could reduce almost any minutae of life to the uninteresting...

Challeninging yourself, and doing something unique is interesting. I can hardly believe I'm wasting my time typing this out.

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.

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 40something?

It depends what you wish to accomplish in your life and who you have depending on you.

Seems like a good argument against having people depend on you!

I have avoided having people depend on me all my life, because I felt I wasn’t up to it. It turns out I’m not, due to my health. But it is a way that some people give meaning to their lives.

That’s the decision that’s leading to declining birthrate in western nations, isn’t it? Why give up your freedom and increase your stress by creating obligation by having children?

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.

If you look at the history of it, it puts him in the same league as the polar explorers of the "heroic age." I think the what now part is two parts: write a book about it; do the motivational speaker circuit.

What now? Time for sun cost fallacy

Thinking a lot does that. It's not just searching for meaning of life and a higher purpose but also realizing how this is the only life you get to have and it is very short. I'd compare people who do this to suiciders,they've both contemplated their current lives intolerable and found a way out: One way is through it,the other is around and both routes are one-way.

Sun cost fallacy is when I don't put on SPF protection thinking it won't be that bad out on the beach today.

Ha! Nice one,will fix typo if it lets me.

It's all about the process not the end goal.

What drives someone do to this?

It's fun.

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