How to survive the SHTF scenario

I have felt for a long time, that a lot of people are taking the wrong approach to doomsday prepping. Equipment is NOT what is going to keep you alive. KNOWLEDGE is what will keep you alive. The ability to utilize whatever you find in your environment to survive. The people who are stockpiling unless you are in a heavily fortified fortress and KNOW how to defend it, are simply going to make themselves into targets by those who want what they have. The people who can stay mobile, and use whatever they find to secure food water and shelter will have a much better chance. If you want to spend money, build up a survival library, and learn everything you can about survival, and transfer that knowledge into your head. No one can take that away from you. A big pile of gear is just a grocery store for mobs that will target you for your supplies. Knowing how to fish, what you can eat, how to get water, how to make shelter, and getting EVERYTHING from the surrounding environment instead of stockpiling it, will make you a less attractive target.

If you want to spend money, build up a survival library, and learn everything you can about survival, and transfer that knowledge into your head.

If I may.... Transfer it to more than just our head. Transfer to disk and removable memory. Old Smart phones, tablets and laptops. The .PDF file format can take everything from scribbled notes to full blow books and combine it however someone wants as a near universally readable file format. The idea isn't to have gizmos with "signal", as signal is pointless after TSHTF. I learned a lot about how to keep those devices powered and operating for local look-up with almost nothing to work with during Occupy. Solar charging works for small devices and every vehicle is a mega-charging station, among other things.

Libraries worth of knowledge can fit on an 8 or 32 gig Micro-SD card. From making soap to making love or fixing predator problems to fixing vehicles. It's all out there for the taking and taken for granted. You're right OP. Knowledge will make all the difference.....but having that knowledge in a form that can be shared or even bartered ...may make it priceless in ways we cant really appreciate at the moment.

Yo! You might want to edit your title, since you have an actual curse word embedded in there.

Try SHTF.

knowledge about what is important is crucial. What can nature provide that others will not exploit if they know it exists. Knowing what a potato plant looks like. You don't need a garden to grow potatoes. Same with Tomatoes and many herbs. Hidden in plain site from those who do not know what is important.

If you want to survive a SHTF time you need to know how to be invisible to others, hiding in plain sight.

I keep both digital and physical stock of books on planing / survival / independent sustainable living. There are several scenarios where digital devices will be utterly useless so never NEVER put all your eggs in one basket. I have been over the years taking to putting the things I learn into practical skills as again what do you do in a situation when you have no books?

I do stock or prep but not much past 3 months for most things. As if an "Event" last longer than this then society is broken beyond a time frame where migration might need to be necessary and you can't take it with you.

Being able to be social and to improvise and retain survival knowledge is why will likely allow you to survive a SHFT situation.

Originally posted by openminded2011
I have felt for a long time, that a lot of people are taking the wrong approach to doomsday prepping. Equipment is NOT what is going to keep you alive. KNOWLEDGE is what will keep you alive. The ability to utilize whatever you find in your environment to survive. The people who are stockpiling unless you are in a heavily fortified fortress and KNOW how to defend it, are simply going to make themselves into targets by those who want what they have. The people who can stay mobile, and use whatever they find to secure food water and shelter will have a much better chance. If you want to spend money, build up a survival library, and learn everything you can about survival, and transfer that knowledge into your head. No one can take that away from you. A big pile of gear is just a grocery store for mobs that will target you for your supplies. Knowing how to fish, what you can eat, how to get water, how to make shelter, and getting EVERYTHING from the surrounding environment instead of stockpiling it, will make you a less attractive target.

edit on 24-2-2013 by openminded2011 because: (no reason given)

I would say knowledge is the first step. Experience/wisdom are what would matter more. Don't get me wrong though, knowledge is a crucial first step before attempting to gain experience =b

Originally posted by Philippines

Originally posted by openminded2011
I have felt for a long time, that a lot of people are taking the wrong approach to doomsday prepping. Equipment is NOT what is going to keep you alive. KNOWLEDGE is what will keep you alive. The ability to utilize whatever you find in your environment to survive. The people who are stockpiling unless you are in a heavily fortified fortress and KNOW how to defend it, are simply going to make themselves into targets by those who want what they have. The people who can stay mobile, and use whatever they find to secure food water and shelter will have a much better chance. If you want to spend money, build up a survival library, and learn everything you can about survival, and transfer that knowledge into your head. No one can take that away from you. A big pile of gear is just a grocery store for mobs that will target you for your supplies. Knowing how to fish, what you can eat, how to get water, how to make shelter, and getting EVERYTHING from the surrounding environment instead of stockpiling it, will make you a less attractive target.

edit on 24-2-2013 by openminded2011 because: (no reason given)

I would say knowledge is the first step. Experience/wisdom are what would matter more. Don't get me wrong though, knowledge is a crucial first step before attempting to gain experience =b

I have to agree with you on this one.

You could drop me off in the middle of the Mojave desert and I would be able to survive with no equipment because I was raised in that environment and know it backwards and forwards.

However, I could read all the books in the world about how to survive in an arctic environment but I would probably die from exposure in a couple of days. Knowledge without practicality is useless in my opinion. The real world is never like it is written about in a book.

My parents have a sailboat which is our getaway plan and when I was younger they took me out to learn how to deep sea fish. The few weeks before our trip my father explained how to do everything but once I started it was a horrible failure until he showed me what I was doing wrong.

I knew what to do but it was different when you are actually trying to do it. Now I could explain to a person where to find Sotol in the desert and which parts of it are edible but without going out there and finding it yourself its fairly useless knowledge. Odds are you would walk right by it.

Reading and studying is good but I would suggest everyone takes a trip to their designated area and simply spend a few days out there putting into practice what they have learned. It is invaluable experience.

Originally posted by Hopechest

Originally posted by Philippines

Originally posted by openminded2011
I have felt for a long time, that a lot of people are taking the wrong approach to doomsday prepping. Equipment is NOT what is going to keep you alive. KNOWLEDGE is what will keep you alive. The ability to utilize whatever you find in your environment to survive. The people who are stockpiling unless you are in a heavily fortified fortress and KNOW how to defend it, are simply going to make themselves into targets by those who want what they have. The people who can stay mobile, and use whatever they find to secure food water and shelter will have a much better chance. If you want to spend money, build up a survival library, and learn everything you can about survival, and transfer that knowledge into your head. No one can take that away from you. A big pile of gear is just a grocery store for mobs that will target you for your supplies. Knowing how to fish, what you can eat, how to get water, how to make shelter, and getting EVERYTHING from the surrounding environment instead of stockpiling it, will make you a less attractive target.

edit on 24-2-2013 by openminded2011 because: (no reason given)

I would say knowledge is the first step. Experience/wisdom are what would matter more. Don't get me wrong though, knowledge is a crucial first step before attempting to gain experience =b

I have to agree with you on this one.

You could drop me off in the middle of the Mojave desert and I would be able to survive with no equipment because I was raised in that environment and know it backwards and forwards.

However, I could read all the books in the world about how to survive in an arctic environment but I would probably die from exposure in a couple of days. Knowledge without practicality is useless in my opinion. The real world is never like it is written about in a book.

My parents have a sailboat which is our getaway plan and when I was younger they took me out to learn how to deep sea fish. The few weeks before our trip my father explained how to do everything but once I started it was a horrible failure until he showed me what I was doing wrong.

I knew what to do but it was different when you are actually trying to do it. Now I could explain to a person where to find Sotol in the desert and which parts of it are edible but without going out there and finding it yourself its fairly useless knowledge. Odds are you would walk right by it.

Reading and studying is good but I would suggest everyone takes a trip to their designated area and simply spend a few days out there putting into practice what they have learned. It is invaluable experience.

Sounds like you get it, and from other posts I have seen from you.

Knowledge is posted everywhere, it's now out there in figuratively public display for people to read and understand as they will.

Thing is, knowledge and understanding are the first step.

It goes from there.. No point in handing out pearls yet =b

reply to post by openminded2011


I don't think those stockpiling are ignoring the knowledge aspect. However, it's more than SURVIVING a SHTF event. I'd like to not only survive it, but do so and keep a certain quality of life. Personally, I don't think any particular SHTF scenario is going to last more than 3-6 months before things get back to some kind of order, but who knows?

Given the fact that no one knows what the shtf is going to be like being prepared as "living off the land", "hunting", "growing your own food". may not be possible.

stockpiling supplies is just another means to an end of living people should have food staples right along with that knowledge.training.

reply to post by neo96


I've run into several real world problems where a little stockpiling has really helped.

Not too long ago, I was out of work for months, until I found another gig. Having food stored really helped stretch our budget to get through that time (now I have to replenish the supplies once caught up again).

We recently had a water leak that prevented us from turning on the water for more than 10 minutes at a time (until repaired). Expensive, so took a while to fix, but having water buckets, storage barrels, etc. helped us maximize those 10 minutes, and still make it workable.

For some reason, nocturnal animals have recently been fascinated by our transformer, and keep getting fried by it (knocking our power out in the process). We're rural, so takes some time before they come out, but we manage just fine without power for a bit. We can cook on the grill, use the fireplace to stay warm, use lanterns around the house (I like the old school oil ones), etc. No biggie.