[basementcat]

This level of insanity is not as foreign as you might think. The feeling of accomplishment I get from climbing a mountain, finishing a marathon or a long bike trip is comparable to the feeling I get after taping out a chip, shipping a major software release or delivering first-of-a-kind hardware to a customer.

For some of us, getting Tetris to work in Conway's Game of Life is insanity. For other people, walking across a continent is insanity.

[tootie]

Except that guy literally died. Nobody dies playing on a computer and it's pretty rare to die from running or biking in civilization.

[Someone]

Google ”died playing on a computer”. I got many hits showing “Nobody dies playing on a computer“ isn’t true. Examples:

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/tragic-teen-gamer-d...

https://edition.cnn.com/2015/01/19/world/taiwan-gamer-death/...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_addiction#Deaths

[gameshot911]

Often higher risk goes hand-in-hand with higher reward. It's all on a spectrum.

[tootie]

There's absolutely zero reward for crossing the Antarctic alone and very high risk of death.

[brailsafe]

I can think of a few rewards. Being the first to do something is personally rewarding, but the notoriety is also totally bankable.

[code_duck]

People kind of do, since the lifestyle of sitting down 18 hours a day at a computer is very unhealthy.