Reddit reviews Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why

This is the most common criticism of the book, but I found it very realistic, after reading Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why.

It goes into a bunch of case studies of people in survival situations, from a perspective of psychology and neuroscience. One of the key attributes of the people who survived was exactly the sort of upbeat, can-do attitude that Watney has. The people who get depressed generally don't make it.

Also it's worth keeping in mind that The Martian is Watney's journal entries. You don't have to necessarily think of it as an accurate moment-by-moment portrayal of his mental state; by the time he gets around to writing, he's usually shrugged off the despair. That's what he has to do, to survive.

The book Deep Survival covers a lot of these survival situations and why certain people tend to survive them and others don't.

Short answer: You're correct that people don't devolve into evil animals as much or as quickly as many people assume.

There is of course a threshold where things start to fall apart: people stop going out of their way to help others, then they start fighting over resources (like food at the store), nonviolent theft, violent theft, and so on. That threshold tends to happen later than people think.

There's decent research on this. You might like one of the top prepper books, Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why (Amazon). It has real-world data about how things fell apart and the range of how people reacted.

Sometimes it just comes down to personal values. One family in my personal prepper group says "we'll help others until it hurts", while another says "hell no, when shtf, what's mine is mine." All are very ethical, good people.

Many preppers have a community-minded approach. See the thread from a day ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/preppers/comments/9fwsl2/bov_this_retired_marine_is_rescuing_storm_victims/

From:
https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2019/05/25/toughest-days-my-life-eller-filled-with-emotion-after-intense-community-search/

quoting Amanda Eller's mother, Julia Eller;

> “She sat down and rested on a fallen log, just kinda meditated and took a little nap. When she got up she was disoriented about where she was and just followed her instincts trying to get back to her car,”

And there you have it - disconnection from the real world into a altered mental state, followed by a flawed instinctive reaction;

> 'I wanted to go back the way I'd come, but my gut was leading me another way — and I have a very strong gut instinct.

One can list all the useful things one might or might not carry, wonder why some runners and casual hikers don't prepare for the worst, but key here (actually the keys were left at the car too ...!) was that the brain wasn't given a chance to do its job, orient back into the real world again, and make appropriate decisions.

Laurence Gonzales-Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why

Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why https://www.amazon.com/dp/0393353710/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_P58VBb623H3AT

Lightweight multi-purpose gear like a tarp, foam pad, cordelette, tape, and knife are all extremely useful in an outdoor emergency. If you haven't already, you might want to take a WFR course. You'll gain hands-on experience using the gear mentioned above in a variety of applications.

Also, check out Laurence Gonzales' book Deep Survival. It makes the case that survival in a wilderness environment has almost nothing to do with your gear and everything to do with your mindset and skill set. In other words, the more you know, the less gear you need.

My go-to kit includes the SOL sport utility blanket, the foam pad/frame of my Cilogear 30/30 pack, a small, lightweight climbers knife, and a bare bones custom built first-aid kit from Wilderness Medical Training Center.

Hope this helps!