the very embodiment of Type II Fun

[cris]

There is a piece of advice in this rock climbing textbook that I've been reading that, when stressing the importance of building redundancy into any apparatus that you'll use for climbing, says:

"Always keep more than one point of failure between you and the reaper. This way you have to screw up twice in order to kill yourself."

Comments

[jasonlizard]

And so we learn and grow by our mistakes; hoping none of them are fatal.

What you're doing sounds incredible even if it leaves you shaken.

[fontosaurus]

"But if you don't have the fear, then eventually you'll wind up dead."

This is likely the most underrated statement in the history of risky endeavors. In military parachuting ops, I found that every time I got a little bit complacent, Darwin would rough me up a bit-as in, "I should probably be dead a couple of times over."

After the last bout of complacency, I began to cultivate a healthy respect/fear of what I was doing, whether it was parachuting, climbing, or just $DUMB_THING. It keeps you sharp. Sharp means you'll double- and triple-check everything.

[ahaseurus]

Something I picked up long ago: "It takes three mistakes to kill yourself".

Getting into a car, for instance, counts for one. Going scuba diving counts for at least one, maybe two. Going cave diving counts for 3 1/2 - only one cave diver I've ever met is still alive.

working with pyrotechnics - one and one half. Around other people - two. I've still got my fingers and my eyes.

So - forgot to tie off... one.

Respect works much better than fear. Knowledge of the real situation, knowledge of what's worked for others, and knowledge that however smart you are, smarter people than you have been killed doing what you're trying to do.

Learning by mistakes is good... when one has made sure that one has the latitude to make one.

There are the people who bicycle against traffic at night with no lights. I'd wish Darwin would work but too many times it's been my car they try to impale themselves on. One mistake there is a fatal one :-(

[cris]

btw, I used your three mistakes maxim in conversation this weekend with folks out on a climbing trip in upstate NY. It was well received, partially because a bunch of us had watched someone fall 30 feet and almost break their leg, so we were in desperate need of some gallows humor.