[varyouga]

“An insignia on their jacket? Some selfish, narcissistic compulsion to “conquer Everest”?”

Some people want to push life to the limit and experience new things that few others do. It’s why we have civilization, inventions, spacecraft, etc, etc. New experiences and pushing oneself unlocks new pathways in the mind and leads to innovation.

If everyone was too chicken to experience new and dangerous things, humanity would have died out long ago

[Alberta's Child]

That would explain the first trip to the summit of Mount Everest. It doesn’t explain 50 people trying to cram themselves simultaneously onto an area the size of two ping-pong tables for selfies in 2019.

[Pravious]

Some people want to push life to the limit and experience new things that few others do.

—

Clearly the “few other do” part doesn’t apply anymore. So why don’t they apply their lives to something more useful than endangering their useless lives for a selfie?

[sparklite2]

If everyone was too chicken to experience new and dangerous things, humanity would have died out long ago

---

I don’t care. I still won’t eat raw oysters.

[aquila48]

“Some people want to push life to the limit and experience new things that few others do. It’s why we have civilization, inventions, spacecraft, etc, etc. New experiences and pushing oneself unlocks new pathways in the mind and leads to innovation.”

I agree, but I’m not sure these are them. Hillary and Tenzing would qualify.