I guess the question is always to what degree one can do those things without being the person.

You may admire the reckless behavior and carefree attitude of the rockstar in part because you’d like to worry a bit less about what other people thought or whether that party will compromise your sleep score.

Not because you’d like to do the exact same thing they do.

It's also worth flipping the view - imagine being idolized with all of your own faults and flaws?

To me, at least, the idea seems an uncomfortable and absurd idea from 1 person much less many people

I think this is a pragmatic healthy way to enjoy someone’s work. It is pretty much how I go about it. And it helps that my heroes are all long dead (Michael Collins, for instance ).

Where I think that does not work is when there is a deep resonance in shared experiences, these two had many including some really dark problems of addiction and thoughts of self-harm. I think the author is calling out all of it.

I believe the people begin to get idolized when they can repeatedly pull off interesting work. Then they themselves become interesting because they have some internal mix of factors going on that enables them to do what most people can’t and this makes them fascinating.

Very true. Bourdain did amazing things for the idea of "authentic" travel and cuisine (yes, as authentic as you can get with a camera crew and production staff).

But he was (obviously) deeply troubled.

Parts Unknown, S6E6 - Borneo, to me, shows this the most. He is invited by a tribe to slaughter a pig for the Gawai harvest festival and says that initially he thought he might have a hard time with it. "But, I have been hardened by the last ten years", and follows it by saying that it ends up being easy and that he only feels relief when the pig finally dies, and admits "I'm not sure what that says about me".

Maybe controversial, but your comment hints that you did not read the article.

It´s not about Bourdain being unpleasant at all, much by the contrary, its about the author realizing Bourdain path was not for everybody, and it seems, not for the author at the end.

I think the same happens with startup founders and other tech types who get idolized and speak at conferences.

You can admire their dedication to the mission, their wealth, ingenuity, etc.

But it’s easy to forget that for many of them, it comes at the expense of seeing their kids, spending time with their spouse, and their own health.

I’d much rather sell a company for $20m and have a happy marriage than be a billionaire stuck in a cycle of divorces and estranged children.

It all seems so punishingly and unendingly overstimulating.

You might want to read "Adios, Motherfucker: A Gentleman's Progress Through Rock and Roll" by Michael Ruffino, bassist for The Unband. Bourdain published it, and called it one of the books that made him laugh most.

I do think there’s a bit more depth here.

One is that he worked as a middling chef for decades and only had his breakout success in his 40s. I think this made him much different than your generic essayist/journalist, and also let him speak to different kinds of people. He became a symbol that international travel, trying new things, and living life to its fullest doesn’t have to be an early 20s thing followed by decades of monotony.

He was also uniquely principled (he’d finance some episodes himself) and speak to people on all sides politically, without pandering to either.