I am organizing all the movies I have watched during 2015. Among all these, Everest is one of the only two I actually went to a real theater, sat there and watched with a large crowd. It is not an easy task for me to simply get out of the door and join others, however, I desperately wanted to do that.
I wish to support this movie since I highly respect all the mountain climbers and climbing Everest is also one of my dreams.
The movie is based on a well known climbing disaster in Mount Everest 1996, causing 12 causality during that season. Even though it is a fictional , this movie gives a quite a faithful portrait.Though the truth of this disaster can still be a myth, a lot of scenes in the movie is actually corresponding to the other documentary and books. There are several documentaries investigating this disaster.
As with all other disasters, besides all the sorrows they bring, they teach the rest of us important lessons, especially for the later commercial climbing industry. Stick strictly to the turn around time, never climb with the clients, more accurate weather forecasting, cooperation between all the climb teams, etc. Sadly, the only way for us human beings to get these vital lessons is through all the failures and distastes.
Still, one question remaining for people who have never climbed, why.
Jeorge Mallory
Why did you want to climb Mount Everest?
Because it is there —- George Mallory
The legendary climber George Mallory gave the most beautiful answer to this question, showing human beings’ innate impulse to challenge the limit.
For me, the answer is much down to the earth, or boring in some sense.
Climbing is much easier than the daily life. Life is the hardest thing in my opinion , compared with it, other things become much easier. When climbing, we just need to focus on one clear goal, getting to the top safely. Everything else vanishes in your mind. You are so clear and focused. However, in daily life, we are faced with confusing goal in life and tons of mixed message. What is the goal of life ? What is the path to happiness? What should I do at this moment?
Unfortunately, I can never figure out life and it always remains in confusion.
Extreme conditions expose all your weakness. You will never know which is your weak link if you never put yourself in a challenging situation. The motto — get out of your comfortable zoom, begin to catch up in recent years. However, I see lots of people may take it wrong. It is not about simply trying new stuff, it is about in a position to challenge yourself. Sometimes, the failure even would lead to death. Mountain climbing is a deadly sport, zero tolerance for any mistake. To successfully summit, strength is only one part of it. You need great estimation of yourself, need to conquer the summit fever, need to control in extreme situation. Some minor imperfection in your character will be hugely exaggerated in that situation for your notice.
Bear with that, any journey of life is ultimately a process to learn and develop of yourself.
Everest: Beyond the Limit is a reality show documenting normal people trying to conquer the Everest. As a audience, we can clearly see how people’s character eventually affect their final conquest.
This question is highly subjective, since it is totally dependent on one’s understanding of life. For some people, like followers of Epicureanism the main purpose of life is individual pleasure, sure, climbing mountain would be a stupid idea.
For some, agree with Socrates, life is about striving for your potential. Thus, similar to a lot of mountaineers, constantly challenging to find out the limits of human beings, even until the death, is non disputable.
For modern generation, most of people believe in life is about getting as much pleasure and experience as they can get. Watching the movie might be a reminder of a spirit and aspiration, long existed in human history, but gradually faded with time goes by.
Actually, I finished the book long time ago, but the recent conversation with one friend, bringing back all the memories of the insights from this great book.
This book is often treated as a simple guide book for startups, since the author is famous for co founding Paypal and also is a successful venture capitalist. However, it shouldn’t be confined to just a business book, this book touches a much deep topic– the merits of innovation and how to truly get success in every sphere of life ( of course that is simply my take on this).
Run away from IT and the Big data as fast as you can!
In Silicon Valley, this claim would be laughed at so hard since everything seems tagged with software and big data. However, if we scrutinize the SV, it’s clear that the environment is much tough for the next big IT company, like Facebook or Google to come. IT is mainly a tool for providing information. Now, there is no IT service an average customer needs which has not been provided. Actually we are supplying much more than people need. Artificial Intelligence is still a myth by now. Big data is definitely not the solution for true intelligence, but breakthrough from neural science has not yet arrived. In some sense, IT industry is in a huge stagnation.
As a consequence, the competition remains so fierce that few companies really can make a profit, if not the hyped bubble.
But SV still is the most vibrant place in the world, the next great things would be not in the IT but somewhere else, like biology, space, energy etc.
Innovation is hard, but the reward is huge
Compared with globalization, innovation, which means from zero to one, is hard. Great things needs time, talents, huge resources to make it happen. However, the reward is huge since you are the monopoly in the field.
So it also applies to other field. Building your unique core competence is much better chasing the trends and following what others are doing.
Freedom has a twofold meaning for modern man: that he has been freed from traditional authorities and has become an ‘individual,’ but that at the same time he has become isolated, powerless and an instrument of purposes outside of himself, alienated from himself and others; furthermore, that this state undermines his self, weakens and frightens him, and makes him ready for submission to new kinds of bondage.
-Eric Fromm
Freedom, is often regarded as a human’s innate desire. Human history is fused with bloody battles to gain freedom from external powers bonded us, like authorities, traditions, culture or environmental constrains.
However, this book investigated an interesting question :
Can freedom become a burden, too heavy for man to bear, something he tries to escape from?
Throughout history, we can also find out lots of evidence to prove people’s volunteer escape from freedom. Religion extremes, ultra-nationalism, even Nazi are all great examples to show people giving up their individuality simply to be in part of a huge institution.
Why?
The author argues, which I totally agree , this is due to human’s fear of isolation and powerlessness. True independence is hard to obtain. Even though the modern technology and capitalism renders people a lot of power to be economically independent, it can’t give people a sense of security , which lots of people desperately needed. The sense of security and belonging is usually found in connection with others, like being part of large group. If one can’t find it, the results would be lost, confusion and anxiety.
It seems that nothing is more difficult for the average man to bear than the feeling of not being identified with a larger group.So whenever another authority comes, new social orders, new values, even new dictatorship, he is ready to surrender. Even in democratic society, people seems to be free, in stead the reality is that they simply automatically register to the values imposed on them and never think about it. They believe it’s their own thinking, but maybe not true.
For many, the individuality they claim is an illusion. They adopt entirely the kind of personality offered to them by cultural patterns; and they therefore become exactly as all others are and as expected to be.
The solution?
The author suggest the positive form of freedom based on original thinking and spontaneity. Judge everything based on your own thinking and feelings, retain the curiosity and cheerfulness as a child.
Two things would help escape from the fear, work and love. But still, how to achieve that has to be found out by oneself.
The journey would be long and winding, however, remaining the status of relying on others for security is not sustainable. Also, the temporary calm and security comes with a high price — lose oneself.
If possible, give yourself a chance to grow your own total personality.
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