The thread on the teen sailor started the wheels in my head turning.
Oftentimes we hail things like "sailing around the world", or "climbing Mt. Everest", etc. as great human achievements.
Are they really?
These accomplishments seem, well,
selfish, and the attempts irresponsible. It's not as if no one has ever sailed around the world before. Or climbed Mt. Everest. Et cetera. I would say that--at best--success in these endeavors serves to "inspire others"--of dubious value, as this inspiration often leads to similar behavior. At worst, failures result in huge amounts of wasted money, lives, and time, because quite often rescue attempts turn up nothing more than dead bodies (if that).
Meanwhile,
real achievements often go totally unnoticed (check bryteside.com to see how many good things are happening that never make it to the national news level).
What say you?
