alt Hacker NewsThis particular one wasn't going anywhere useful.
That's presumably why the comment said "when [collective they] finally get lucky", not "when [individual they] inevitably get lucky".
A certain percentage of your species having genes encouraging risky/stupid behavior is likely somewhat useful.
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A lone penguin wandering off is never going to create a new, badass species. There would need to be an entire group of penguins breaking off to establish a new population and eventually a new species. And they don't necessarily become more badass, just different; whatever alleles the founders had will be more consistently expressed in the new population, and eventually they may diverge enough to be a new species. Regardless, this penguin is marching off to die alone.
No, this trait is almost certainly not useful.
Mother Nature doesn't give a shit, that's worth remembering. For the scenarios where two species in an arms race wipe each other out aren't somehow more or less desirable than other outcomes, it's just a thing which happened. Meh.