[Russic]

I have this odd pull to give the CEO some credit here for getting on the thing every time. If you'd told me a billionaire hacked together a submarine following an afternoon adventure at Pick Your Part, I'd wager all my money that he'd be in the control room eating shark-fin soup and bloviating to the media about them "doing all they can to retrieve those brave souls." *blows gently on his soup*

I don't know that I can categorize this guy as a grifter. He is (was) very open about it being a fly-by-night operation and wrote out a contract that basically outlined that you're taking your life in your hands. People who have done it before reported saying goodbye to their loved ones and coming to terms that they may not make it back up. There's very little deception going on.

People want experiences, and it's in our nature to keep searching for the next impossible challenge. Sometimes that desire is healthy and it leaves you trying to run a 5k in under 27 minutes, sometimes it goes a bit extreme and you do increasingly dangerous things until you're crushed by 328,000,000 cubic miles of seawater.

I think being a billionaire does present some fascinating challenges. It's turning on god mode, but for life. We all have challenges so it might be impossible to square, but a life without challenge isn't all that fun. I think that's part of why we see billionaires often doing increasingly moronic things in the pursuit of feeling anything. As horrifically stupid as it is, going to the Titanic in a home-made submarine is pretty punk rock.

One thing I do find interesting is that this story is really a micro Titanic story itself. Rich people die in a poorly made boat, garnering tons of attention. This story will continue on for decades and it will annoy people, just as shipwreck fans find the constant focus on Titanic disproportionate and annoying.