Nobody climbs mountains for scientific reasons. Science is used to raise money for the expeditions, but you really climb for the hell of it.

The real reason we do anything

We tell ourselves stories about why we do things. We need the mountain to be about something—discovery, achievement, testing human limits. But Hillary cuts through that: people climb because they want to climb. The noble framing comes after, when you're asking for funding or explaining yourself to skeptical friends.

This matters because we do this constantly in smaller ways. We exercise "for our health," when really we just like how it feels to move. We say we're reading for self-improvement when we're actually lost in a story. We frame side projects as "building skills" when the real draw is the work itself. There's nothing wrong with this gap between our stated reasons and our actual ones—it's just honest human nature. But noticing it changes things. When you admit you're doing something because you genuinely want to, not because it's virtuous or productive, you usually do it better. You stop second-guessing yourself. You're not performing for an imaginary audience; you're just doing the thing that calls to you.

The practical twist: the people who achieve remarkable things often aren't the ones with the most elaborate justifications. They're the ones who skipped that step and went straight to the wanting.