I don't give a F*ck about climbing

Ted Pinson wrote: Well, she would die.  I think Alex would have some pretty solid life advice, though.  He’s definitely living his dream.

Is he happy, though?

Zack Robinson wrote: 

Is he happy, though?

• Recognition and acceptance from peer group, as well as outside 

• Dedicated life partner

• Financial stability

• Made passion into a career

• Able to give back to his (global) community through a non-profit they head

• Seems pretty humble about it all 

I think Alex has reached Maslow's self-acceptance. 

Long Ranger wrote:

• Recognition and acceptance from peer group, as well as outside 

• Dedicated life partner

• Financial stability

• Made passion into a career

• Able to give back to his (global) community through a non-profit they head

• Seems pretty humble about it all 

I think Alex has reached Maslow's self-acceptance. 

Yeah, but I wonder about the happiness.  I have no real clue, of course.  But having reasons to be happy is not the same thing as being happy.

I'm often reminded that the purpose of life is not "happiness" - that happiness is not guaranteed by any cosmic law of the Universe, that life itself is essentially an absurd dance with little if any intrinsic meaning, and that a good way to become fulfilled in a world of uncompromising and unavoidable pain and suffering is to make your own definition of what gives you and you alone meaning; then strive to work towards meeting that potential. It also helps not to compare yourself to others. When I hear people say, "But, is this person happy?" pointing out someone's  specific life choices, I wonder if it's just another way of saying, "If this was me, would I be happy in their shoes?", but that question is irrelevant: you're not that person - it's best instead to be your own person. It's just another way to be kind to others, and to yourself. Are they happy? Maybe? Probably? Some of the time? Hey, kinda like me.

I think Alex has mastered that - perhaps without knowing. From the Rich Roll interview w/Chai and Chin, he talks about how Alex frames the solo itself and how it helps to calm himself down in real world things. They use a situation where he's at an airport and there's someone in the line in front of him that's disgruntled that a flight was canceled or whatever, and this setback is affecting them strongly. Alex opines that, "Well, at least you're not gonna die". I guess that's an interesting tool to use - and perhaps one of the reasons that doing these selfish acts can be of benefit in our lives when we're doing actually important things. I know when I'm faced with some absurdly complicated or difficult task I think of the rando stuff I do that people are all stoked on, and think, "Well, this ain't as hard as doings such-and-such". It's like a earned confidence.

Long Ranger wrote: I'm often reminded that the purpose of life is not "happiness" - that happiness is not guaranteed by any cosmic law of the Universe, that life itself is essentially an absurd dance with little if any intrinsic meaning, and that a good way to become fulfilled in a world of uncompromising and unavoidable pain and suffering is to make your own definition of what gives you and you alone meaning; then strive to work towards meeting that potential. It also helps not to compare yourself to others. When I hear people say, "But, is this person happy?" pointing out someone's  specific life choices, I wonder if it's just another way of saying, "If this was me, would I be happy in their shoes?", but that question is irrelevant: you're not that person - it's best instead to be your own person. It's just another way to be kind to others, and to yourself. Are they happy? Maybe? Probably? Some of the time? Hey, kinda like me.

I think Alex has mastered that - perhaps without knowing. From the Rich Roll interview w/Chai and Chin, he talks about how Alex frames the solo itself and how it helps to calm himself down in real world things. They use a situation where he's at an airport and there's someone in the line in front of him that's disgruntled that a flight was canceled or whatever, and this setback is affecting them strongly. Alex opines that, "Well, at least you're not gonna die". I guess that's an interesting tool to use - and perhaps one of the reasons that doing these selfish acts can be of benefit in our lives when we're doing actually important things. I know when I'm faced with some absurdly complicated or difficult task I think of the rando stuff I do that people are all stoked on, and think, "Well, this ain't as hard as doings such-and-such". It's like a earned confidence.

Interesting thoughts.  I think the question of what makes one's life go best is an interesting and difficult one, but I do think happiness is generally a pretty important component.  I think our general moral imperative is to maximize something like happiness and minimize something like suffering.  So if that is our imperative for the world in general, it seems like more happiness is a good thing individually as well.  If something else "gives me meaning" but doesn't make me happy, what's the point?  To be clear, I don't mean to include selfless acts in that equation.  If you lead a life with no happiness but save a thousand other lives, I think you lived well.  But assuming we aren't talking about altruistic action, I don't see how any goal achievement that doesn't result in happiness is worthwhile.

I should have clarified my motivation in asking the question.  Per the film, Honnold's amygdala activity is in the 5th percentile.  This is likely an explanation for why he doesn't get as afraid as most people.  But the amygdala also has an important role in positive emotions as well, and Alex seems like a very "flat" guy.  I obviously don't know him, and films can be edited all sorts of ways.  Let me be clear about that because I know someone is going to say "You don't even know him!"  I don't.  But I left the film wondering if he seemed happy.  Strangely, I would put myself in the opposite camp of what you described: I was a little confused because I feel like I would be happier than what Alex Honnold seems to be if I were Alex Honnold.

EDIT: I was curious whether anything had been written about this aspect of Honnold in the film, and of course it had.  I found a quote from an interview he did with Tim Ferris, who asked him about it:

I think I gravitate towards being a somewhat depressed person. Or—I don’t know actually. I’m sort of just flat…I feel like I don’t have any of the highs. I kind of go from level, to slightly below level, to back. It’s all pretty flat…

Yeah, I think that’s just who he is, based on his biology and possibly upbringing.  He’ll never be “happy” (with the rare exception of when he does things like solo El Cap), but being free to do what he wants keeps his depression in check.

Dana Bartlett wrote:

Climbing is a life-changing passion. When we climb, we make powerful, harmonizing connections with nature, ourselves, and each other.

This is how I felt in my 20s and young 30s, then it became more of a fun hobby and great workout. Climbing piles of rock is meaningless and contributes almost nothing to society, maybe some tourism dollars to small towns? 

Dana Bartlett wrote:

Climbing is a life-changing passion. When we climb, we make powerful, harmonizing connections with nature, ourselves, and each other.

Every passion is life changing. There is nothing special about climbing in particular.

Zack Robinson wrote:

Is he happy, though?

Maybe now he is but he can't be number one soloist winning Oscars forever, this has got to be his peak and it's only down hill from here.

Will Alex be another pro climber turned sales rep peddling his shit while going gray? 

Tradiban wrote:

Maybe now he is but he can't be number one soloist winning Oscars forever, this has got to be his peak and it's only down hill from here.

Will Alex be another pro climber turned sales rep peddling his shit while going gray? 

Seems to me that to peddle shit you need to be pretty young and surround yourself with all the other beautiful young people to take pictures of. At least he isn't making some fake sponsored instagram post about some lifestyle brand thinly veiled as genuinely enjoying whatever avocado kale superfood bars just came out. Seems to me Alex is doing pretty well for himself, and made somewhat of a calculated decision that would allow him and some friends to make some money, that will allow him and some friends to freely do what they want to for quite a while. I'm sure he also finds meaning in devoting time and money to his foundation, and this film will bring both money and visibility to that too.

Tim Lutz wrote:

Don't forget: big house, big truck, millions in cash

I think I covered that in, "financial stability". I don't believe those specific items ( big house, big truck, millions in cash) are required for, "happiness". Wealthy people also experience sadness, depression, are suicidal, hurt the ones they love, etc. What they may have more than poor schmucks like me is privacy against the rest of the world knowing that they themselves are desperately suffering like the rest of us.

Zack Robinson wrote:

Is he happy, though?

I think the more important question is if he is CONTENT? And based on what I see he appears content. For all the attention he's got, Alex has built a pretty simple and contained life built around the things that please him. I don't see him coveting other peoples' different successes or possessions. 

Ya know what's depressing? A buncha boobs trying to decide if Alex Honnold is "happy". Stop measuring yourself against others, it's unbecoming.

Tradiban wrote: Ya know what's depressing? A buncha boobs trying to decide if Alex Honnold is "happy". Stop measuring yourself against others, it's unbecoming.

This.

Try Cam wrote:

This.

I was kidding.

Tradiban wrote:

I was kidding.

This.

Sloppy Second wrote: Skimmed the first paragraph. It was about her lunch. Pressed the back button.

A reminder of why I don't give a fuck about Outside magazine.

Outside Magazine was pretty good many years ago, IMHO, but now is mostly reviews of $5000 fly rods and $20,000 bikes...

I got a free subscription a while back and it was a waste of paper. Very little I cared to read and lots of yuppie crap about overpriced gear and expensive vacations

I thought the documentary was very underwhelming. The climbing was stripped down to the bare minimum, and the random "daily routine" was almost fictionalized. If they would have stuck to Alex's actual van life, I think everyone would have appreciated the climb a lot more. The movie made it seem like you can rapp El Cap a handful of times, lap a few crux moves, do some hangbording and your ready to go, so long as you write down all the hard moves in a note book. The feat of soloing Freeblast is worth every award ever, but Chai's direction was NOT Oscar worthy, imo. I don't mind seeing the personal relationships that Honnold had/has during the filming, but this was way over done, and the sweat, blood, and fucking major effort that was put in was completely lost. I wanted to see more of the "work your dick off" dude that everyone knows had to be there to pull off such a huge accomplishment. Hopefully one day Jimmy's cut will be released and I can forget that non climbers care more about buying refrigerators with their girlfriends than working at something so hard that you can barely crawl into bed at night.

Ma Ja wrote: I thought the documentary was very underwhelming. The climbing was stripped down to the bare minimum, and the random "daily routine" was almost fictionalized. If they would have stuck to Alex's actual van life, I think everyone would have appreciated the climb a lot more. The movie made it seem like you can rapp El Cap a handful of times, lap a few crux moves, do some hangbording and your ready to go, so long as you write down all the hard moves in a note book. The feat of soloing Freeblast is worth every award ever, but Chai's direction was NOT Oscar worthy, imo. I don't mind seeing the personal relationships that Honnold had/has during the filming, but this was way over done, and the sweat, blood, and fucking major effort that was put in was completely lost. I wanted to see more of the "work your dick off" dude that everyone knows had to be there to pull off such a huge accomplishment. Hopefully one day Jimmy's cut will be released and I can forget that non climbers care more about buying refrigerators with their girlfriends than working at something so hard that you can barely crawl into bed at night.

If there were a category for “Best Documentary Film Subject” regardless of the quality of the actual film, this totally wins. 

"Intense is used to describe women. Guys are intense, but they don’t get described that way.”

This quote from Elizabeth is revealing.  She appears to be a rabid feminist (which I don't mind per se), but what I do mind is this inaccurate analysis of men.   It shows that she has an axe to grind and it helps to explain why she was so focused on the Sanni angle and why she embarrassed herself in the acceptance speech by gushing on Sanni right off the bat.  Men are most certainly labeled as "intense".  Her comment is out-dated bullshit from the 1950's.  Honestly gender roles have developed way beyond this simple view.  This "woman behind the man" angle and showing them as cold, obsessed athletes is unfair.  In Free Solo she allowed way too much room for Sanni to say all kinds of things that were seemingly profound but were nothing more than a new girlfriend getting ahead of herself.  When Sanni compared herself to Ueli Steck's wife I laughed.   Honey, at the time of the filming you'd known Alex for about 6 months.   Secondly, when you met him at a book signing he was already a known famous free soloist so for you to ask him to change/adapt and stop soloing because of you, is absurd.  When she's crying and like "Why does he have to do this??"  I felt a little ashamed of the movie maker going all-in on this drama.