“We want to go deeper than anyone else has ever gone. We want to
be as great as we can possibly be,” he said. “That’s why we accept
risk. If we did not accept risk, we would never have crossed open
oceans, we would never have learned to sail ships, we would never
have flown airplanes.”--Alfred Hagen
That sounds so poetic but there is a difference between accepting unavoidable risks and ignoring safeguards. There is a difference between weighing risk and blithe indifference to probable consequences. Foolhardy ≠ courageous.
It’s easy to paint pictures with words to cast oneself as the hero. This man was not a hero, he was gambling with his own & other people’s lives. He ignored basic safeguards, had no redundancy to deal with failure of any component. There is nothing to admire in someone who is so committed to being a trailblazer that he ignores risk to others so he can posture.