Is risk entirely bad?
03-02-2019, 10:02 AM
#16
If you haven't, check out the NatGeo movie Free Solo about the guy that climbed El Capitan in Yosemite with no ropes. They do an MRI and his "risk tolerance" area of his brain is slower to respond and reacts less to risk than average bear....
03-02-2019, 10:18 AM
#17
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I saw chunks of that movie and even knowing the guy lived watching it was too stressful for me.
So I guess I'll never be a world class climber.
So I guess I'll never be a world class climber.
03-02-2019, 11:29 AM
#18
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If you want to explore how that happens, check out the Red Bull performance center. Not open to you or I, but you can learn how they change people's outlook, hormones, and risk tolerance. There are some great stories about Felix Baumgartner (sp?) Skydiving from outer space.
03-02-2019, 11:55 AM
#19
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This starts and ends with brain chemistry. There's a squirt of some neuro-transmitter that, depending on the person, feels good or bad whenever risk is encountered.
Some of us are wired to be "brain bored" a lot and the focusing intensity of risky activity feels good.
Free solo...that's another thing entirely.
Some of us are wired to be "brain bored" a lot and the focusing intensity of risky activity feels good.
Free solo...that's another thing entirely.
03-02-2019, 01:19 PM
#20
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Sure, that is absolutely the other side of the coin.
03-03-2019, 10:44 AM
#21
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it is not just risk and how you manage it but also how you perceive fear. I am going to watch Free Solo this weekend and was reading this article which talks about it:
http://nautil.us/issue/39/sport/the-strange-brain-of-the-worlds-greatest-solo-climber
http://nautil.us/issue/39/sport/the-strange-brain-of-the-worlds-greatest-solo-climber
This starts and ends with brain chemistry. There's a squirt of some neuro-transmitter that, depending on the person, feels good or bad whenever risk is encountered.
Some of us are wired to be "brain bored" a lot and the focusing intensity of risky activity feels good.
Free solo...that's another thing entirely.
Some of us are wired to be "brain bored" a lot and the focusing intensity of risky activity feels good.
Free solo...that's another thing entirely.
Honnold's brain wiring and chemistry to seems to be out there, and I'm not sure I'd want to instruct someone like that on track. But he'd probably do very well in racing.
This passage from the article resonates with me as largely explaining the need to get closer to the edge and pursue faster lap times, and why doing the same ol' lap can eventually get a little boring:
Yet he also tells me that easier, day-to-day soloing (the kind that most rock climbers would still consider to be an extreme activity) has lost some of its novelty, and even life-list solos sometimes leave him underwhelmed. “I didn’t find it as fulfilling as I’d hoped,” Honnold has written about an all-day solo link-up of three difficult routes. “People might expect these kinds of climbing achievements to generate euphoria, but in fact I seem to experience the opposite.”
I plan to watch Free Solo. Hopefully, it won't terrify me too much. Meanwhile:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iM6M_7wBMc
I plan to watch Free Solo. Hopefully, it won't terrify me too much. Meanwhile:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iM6M_7wBMc
Last edited by Manifold; 03-03-2019 at 12:54 PM.
03-03-2019, 07:56 PM
#22
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All addictions (drugs, alcohol, sugar, money, fame, recognition, experiences, thrill, approval, risk, adrenaline, dopamine, serotonin, etc.) require ever higher doses for maintaining the same level of satisfaction (happiness). There exists satisfaction (happiness) which is detached from this hedonic treadmill.
03-04-2019, 09:34 AM
#23
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I watched Free Solo yesterday. Seems to me that climbing without a safety rope doesn't make the task of climbing more difficult, but it increases the consequence of a significant mistake to certain death. That would be analogous to having 1000' cliffs along both edges of track, so that if you go off you die. That may intensify the driving experience and sense of accomplishment, but it seems a bit foolish to voluntarily increase the consequence of error to certain death, without even making the task itself more difficult in the first place. If a guy came to the track and said "I want to drive without a helmet, no seat belt, airbags disengaged, and a metal bar a few inches from my head, because the added risk makes driving more fun for me," we all know what we'd say to that guy.
03-04-2019, 05:57 PM
#24
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Ha, yes. Except our free solo comrades, maybe ...