Now, Chin has turned his lens inward and toward the wisdom of others with his new book, Rules to Live By<\/em>, published by Celadon Books. While the volume presents the words and philosophies of ten remarkable individuals, it also functions as an intimate memoir. The book is structured around ten deep conversations with people who have carved out extraordinary paths and lived entirely on their own terms: Yvon Chouinard, Yo-Yo Ma, Simone Biles, Ridley Scott, Kelly Slater, Annette Bening, Lynsey Addario, Kris Tompkins, Alex Honnold, and Bill King, a retired command master chief of SEAL Team 6. Throughout these dialogues, Chin asks each of them a variation of the same fundamental question: In the end, what really matters?<\/em> By the time the reader finishes the book, they learn what matters most to Jimmy Chin as well.<\/p>\n Earlier this month, Chin sat down onstage at the Bell House in Brooklyn to discuss the project. Marking his very first book event, he candidly confessed to the audience that he had not reread the work since turning the final manuscript into his publishers. \u201cThere\u2019s a reason I\u2019m a filmmaker,\u201d he told the crowd with a laugh. \u201cWriting is really, really difficult.\u201d The wide-ranging conversation that followed touched upon subjects as diverse as intensive violin practice, an undisclosed military base, and the frustrating mystery of a missing sock. <\/p>\n Chin\u2019s journey toward the peaks of Yosemite and the Himalayas began in an environment defined by rigorous discipline and high expectations. Reflecting on his family history in the book, he notes that he is \u201cthe only son of an only son of an only son.\u201d <\/p>\n When asked if that lineage felt like a heavy burden, Chin explained the structure of his childhood. He began playing the violin at age three, which quickly evolved into two grueling hours of practice every single day. That was followed by two hours of martial arts daily, and then school homework. That rigid schedule constituted his weekdays and was all he knew growing up. Yet, the routine instilled a deep sense of discipline and an uncompromising standard for excellence. His father\u2019s persistent mantra was simple: \u201cIf you\u2019re going to do it, you might as well do it well.\u201d Chin admits that he hated that pressure at the time, and notes that he sometimes still struggles with it today.<\/p>\n Whenever he performed well in school, his reward was simple: running off into the woods where there were no rules. Because his parents were librarians, his childhood home was always filled with books. Later in life, when his parents questioned how he ended up living a transient, outdoor-focused lifestyle, Chin playfully deflected the blame back onto them. \u201cIt\u2019s your fault,\u201d he told them. \u201cYou gave me all these books.\u201d <\/p>\n He discovered climbing during his college years, and it immediately registered as his first true calling. Growing up, his worldview was so narrow that he literally believed there were only three viable career paths: lawyer, doctor, or professor. Consequently, after graduation, he informed his parents that he would take just one year off to get climbing out of his system before pursuing a traditional career\u2014which he acknowledges was a total lie. From the age of 21 to 28, he lived out of his car, inside a cave in Yosemite\u2019s Camp 4, or out of a converted chicken coop in Jackson, Wyoming.<\/p>\n Staying in touch with his family during those nomadic years required navigating a delicate dynamic. His sister, who graduated from Stanford and worked at Yale for 18 years, served as his primary advocate. When Chin called to ask how his mother was coping with his lifestyle, his sister would relay the blunt assessment: \u201cMom just keeps saying, \u2018I raised a homeless man.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n With his father, however, the desire for understanding ran deep. While people frequently look at his breathtaking films and photographs and ask about the greatest physical risk he has ever taken, Chin insists it was never a mountain. The true risk was being in his early twenties, paralyzed by self-doubt, sitting through miserable storm days trapped inside a dripping, soaking-wet cave while wondering what he was doing with his life while all his college peers went off to graduate school and started conventional careers. During this same bohemian period, Chin even played guitar in a reggae band composed entirely of classically trained kids who had the technical skill to play whatever they desired. When asked if they ever released an album, Chin laughed and admitted they simply weren’t that good.<\/p>\n Choosing the ten subjects featured in Rules to Live By<\/em> was a deliberate process shaped by the immense toll of Chin\u2019s primary profession. Because his feature documentaries routinely require four, five, six, or seven years of dedicated labor\u2014demanding that the filmmaker literally "bleed for them"\u2014he recognized that a director can only make a finite number of films in a single lifetime. There were countless figures he deeply admired whose stories he would never manage to capture on film. <\/p>\n Instead, he envisioned the book as a constellation of totally different backgrounds and careers. He wanted to explore what these extraordinary individuals discovered truly mattered after a lifetime of striving, what success looked like when they first started out, and how that definition had evolved over time. Having recently turned 50, Chin was naturally looking back at his own life in distinct phases and pondering the road ahead.<\/p>\n Chin\u2019s cinematic achievements almost took a very different turn. Following the success of his critically acclaimed documentary Meru<\/em>, producers continually pressed him about his next project. Casually mentioning to his friend Evan Hayes\u2014who would go on to produce Free Solo<\/em>\u2014that he had been toying with the idea of a documentary about Alex Honnold, Chin barely finished uttering his friend’s name before Hayes interrupted to declare, \u201cThat\u2019s it.\u201d National Geographic green-lit the project immediately, bypassing the need for a formal pitch deck.<\/p>\n Having filmed and photographed Honnold for a decade, Chin understood that while he had worked with many of the absolute greatest adventure athletes of the modern era, Honnold occupied an entirely different category. In Chin\u2019s mind, Honnold was an anomaly among anomalies, a figure whose sheer capabilities confounded even other athletes operating at the absolute pinnacle of sport.<\/p>\n When Chin called Honnold to share the news that the film was green-lit, Honnold responded enthusiastically, noting that it was timely because he was seriously considering free-soloing El Capitan. Chin\u2019s immediate reaction was a firm refusal. He told Honnold he would not make that film, and promptly called Evan Hayes to announce he was completely out of the project. <\/p>\n The hesitation stemmed from a profound fear shared by Honnold\u2019s inner circle. They had watched his progression\u2014from soloing Moonlight Buttress to tackling Half Dome\u2014and while they discussed breaking speed records on Half Dome, the terrifying next logical step was an unspoken ghost that nobody wanted to bring into existence. Chin\u2019s overriding dread was simple and agonizing: What if the presence of the film crew somehow contributed to Honnold\u2019s fatal fall? That was a burden he knew he could not live with.<\/p>\n What ultimately changed his mind was the realization that Honnold was going to attempt the monumental climb regardless of whether cameras were rolling. Having taken Honnold on his first international expedition and shared countless experiences with him, Chin fundamentally trusted the climber. Honnold was the most calculated person he had ever met, driven by instinct, razor-sharp intelligence, and an absolute indifference to external validation. <\/p>\n To make the project feasible, Chin established three strict rules for his crew, which consisted almost entirely of elite professional climbers capable of navigating both extreme vertical terrain and complex camera gear: First, they were Honnold\u2019s friends above all else. Second, they were climbers first, requiring them to think like mountaineers before pulling out a camera. Third, they were filmmakers whose operational needs could never supersede Honnold\u2019s safety or personal requirements.<\/p>\n When audiences watched the film and witnessed Honnold\u2019s brain scan, many concluded he must be superhuman. Chin notes that Honnold actively resents that narrative because it simply isn’t true. Honnold frequently points out that he experiences fear and always has. One of the primary reasons he initially gravitated toward soloing was simple social anxiety; he was too shy to ask other people to climb with him. His methodology involved systematically stepping outside his comfort zone in a regimented, disciplined manner until the things that once terrified him were safely domesticated within it. While the film production spanned nearly four years, Honnold had essentially been training for that single climb his entire career.<\/p>\n By 2017, Chin was actively attempting to dial back the level of risk in his personal life. Then, legendary mountaineer Conrad Anker and Alex Honnold invited him on an expedition to Antarctica, and he went anyway. In the book, Chin argues that children need parents who are physically alive, but they also desperately need parents who feel alive inside. When asked if this philosophy is a genuine conviction or merely a convenient justification for a high-risk lifestyle, Chin acknowledges the deeply personal and complex nature of the dilemma.<\/p>\n It is impossible to offer a comforting justification to a child whose parent dies in the mountains doing what Chin does, and he admits there is no easy answer. Having lost numerous friends in the alpine world\u2014some of whom were parents\u2014he understands the paradox intimately. Following the death of his friend Hilaree Nelson, Bill King wrote to him, prompting a response from Chin: \u201cThe mountains give us so much life, yet they take so much life away. It never makes sense, but we understand.\u201d King later quoted that exact line in his retirement speech. Chin maintains that his perspective is not an excuse; rather, he genuinely believes children need to see their parents fully engaged and alive as themselves. For better or for worse, exploration is his calling.<\/p>\n Navigating the psychological weight of danger requires a precise internal calibration. Fear can either sharpen human senses or completely paralyze action. When crises arise in the field, panic never serves a useful purpose. Instead, Chin breaks down the situation methodically: evaluating how much danger stems from perceived risk versus actual risk. That single mental exercise brings a person back into the present moment, allowing them to discard imagined fears, focus strictly on reality, formulate a concrete plan, and execute it.<\/p>\n One of the more memorable encounters detailed in the book involves a surprise invitation Chin received from the elite military unit SEAL Team 6. Providing only a date, a time, and an airport, the organization flew Chin to an undisclosed location and confiscated his phone upon arrival. Though he had not felt nervous about public speaking in years, standing before operators who size you up immediately is an entirely different experience. <\/p>\n He later learned that every member of Team 6 had watched Meru<\/em>. When Chin finished his presentation, a voice from the back of the room cut straight to the chase with a pointed inquiry: \u201cHow did you decide to turn around 100 meters from the summit?\u201d Chin immediately recognized that answering that specific question was the entire reason he had been flown out to the base.<\/p>\n When mountaineers invest years of their lives into an ultimate objective and the summit is literally within touching distance, walking away in the face of unfavorable conditions requires extraordinary discipline. On Meru, the team had brought seven days of food but ended up spending 19 days on the vertical wall, deliberately crossing and recrossing their own self-imposed safety lines. The deeper an individual invests into a goal, the harder it becomes to turn around.<\/p>\n Sharing notes with the military unit revealed a striking philosophical overlap, particularly regarding what Chin calls the "no-asshole rule." When Chin asked Bill King what specific trait helps candidates survive grueling military training, King answered without hesitation: "Humor." If a candidate is enduring immense hardship and still managing to crack jokes, instructors stop worrying about them. <\/p>\n Chin notes that the exact same dynamic applies in the high-stakes environment of mountaineering. Humor alters the psychological atmosphere and snaps people back to rational, clear-headed decision-making. While the selection process for a climbing partner is admittedly less formal than military selection, trusting someone with your life on a rope means you cannot afford to surround yourself with individuals driven solely by ego and self-interest. <\/p>\n Among his influences, outdoor apparel icon Yvon Chouinard occupies the role of an informal guru. Chouinard frequently reminds Chin of a fundamental truth: \u201cIt\u2019s so easy to complicate your life. It\u2019s so much harder to simplify it.\u201d <\/p>\n When asked if he has managed to master that simplicity, Chin notes that he achieves it effortlessly during expeditions. That functional minimalism is precisely why he loves high-altitude travel\u2014it brings out the absolute best version of himself. On the mountain, teams are ruthlessly efficient because every single ounce counts. Even emotional stress and heart rates are managed with precision, allowing Chin to remain exceptionally calm amidst severe crises. Yet, he admits with self-deprecation that if he cannot locate a matching sock in his domestic life at home, the situation feels entirely overwhelming by comparison.<\/p>\n Looking toward the future, Chin shares deep concerns regarding the preservation of the wild places that have defined his existence, ensuring they remain intact for his children. This concern forms the emotional core of the final pages of his book, informed heavily by the contrasting yet complementary examples of Yvon Chouinard and Kris Tompkins.<\/p>\n Chouinard\u2019s guiding philosophy is that everyone possesses different tools, and whatever an individual is naturally good at is what they should contribute to the greater good. Activism takes many forms; if someone is an accountant, for instance, countless grassroots environmental organizations desperately need accounting expertise. <\/p>\n For Chin, the tools in his own toolbox are storytelling and a prominent public platform. That realization directly motivated him to produce the documentary Wild Life<\/em> following the massive success of Free Solo<\/em>, utilizing his industry capital to highlight the extraordinary conservation efforts of Doug and Kris Tompkins, who spent 25 years preserving roughly 17 million acres to establish national parks in South America. Having brought his own children down to those protected lands, Chin hopes that capturing these narratives in film and in print will help make a lasting difference, letting the vital voices of conservationists like Yvon and Kris resonate far beyond his own.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Published October 31, 2026, 05:00 AM When Jimmy Chin was in his twenties, living out of a battered 1989 Subaru Loyale somewhere between Yosemite and the Tetons, he spent a considerable amount of time trying to explain the intricacies of rock climbing to his father. His father, a librarian at Mankato State University in Minnesota, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1553,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[269],"tags":[270,409,2470,2473,272,2471,253,2469,383,2475,271,2472,2474,1015,568],"class_list":["post-1554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adventure-travel-outdoor-activities","tag-adventure-travel","tag-book","tag-chin","tag-excellence","tag-exploration","tag-explores","tag-hiking","tag-jimmy","tag-live","tag-matters","tag-outdoor-sports","tag-philosophy","tag-risk","tag-rules","tag-truly"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetripbook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetripbook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetripbook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetripbook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetripbook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thetripbook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetripbook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetripbook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetripbook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetripbook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\u201cIf you\u2019re going to do it, do it well\u201d<\/h2>\n
![\"What](\"https:\/\/cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/EverestTheOtherSide_30_R.webp\")
<\/figure>\nA Constellation of Answers<\/h2>\n
An Anomaly Among Anomalies<\/h2>\n
![\"What](\"https:\/\/cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_0778-2400x1350-1-1024x576.jpg?width=2048&&quality=75&fit=cover\")
<\/figure>\nAlive, and Alive Inside<\/h2>\n
The Question at the Undisclosed Location<\/h2>\n
![\"What](\"https:\/\/cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1_Rules-to-Live-By-COVER_2400x1350-1024x576.jpg?width=2048&&quality=75&fit=cover\")
<\/figure>\nYvon\u2019s Wisdom<\/h2>\n