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Monday, February 3, 2014

15 Real-World Modern Survival Skills


Posted by FerFAL at 9:41 AM
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2 comments:

Don Williams said...

1) Re negotiating, I would suggest looking at the books by
corporate consultant Chester Karass. He looks at the process
and various techniques in detail. One of his points is that
negotiation is not necessarily trying to screw the other guy -- that you will often gain more if you put yourself in the other guy's shoes and try to identify ways in which you can adjust the deal to provide more
value to him (or reduce YOUR costs by removing things the
other guy considers of little value.) There are many facets to
a deal other than just cost -- guarantees, agreement to provide
repairs to a product for free for a defined time period, etc.

2) A skill related to defensive driving and backpacking is Navigation.
For some reason, a lot of people don't know how to read a map, including an urban street map. You need to know how to orient the map to North -- and you should know that direction either from looking at a major landmark or from the sun.

One way to get yourself into trouble is to wander into a bad neighborhood because you have gotten lost.

Another way is to get into a car wreck because you haven't determined your route in advance and you are distracted by trying to read street signs, listen to a GPS, etc and don't see another car cutting in front of
you or putting on its brakes.


Of course, a combination of the two -- Hitting a gangbangers car from behind while in a bad neighborhood -- is a really
bad situation to get into.

Also, a map is of little value if you can't determine your location -- you need to keep track of where you are and of being able
to find your location either from a street index or the directions from major landmarks (look up "triangulation").

February 3, 2014 at 12:17 PM
Don Williams said...

1) Re self defense, defending your family is different from defending yourself. The best way to appreciate the difference is to look at some of the books on executive protection --i.e, bodyguarding.

2) One of the astonishing things is how many men are required just
to protect one or two people. You need a team leader who stays
beside the client(s) and commands the unit of 4 bodyguards who
surround the client (often in diamond formation). It takes two cars or SUVs to carry those 5 men and the client(s) so you also
need two drivers (defensive driving is a full time job when the car is in motion --plus the drivers need to stay with the cars when the clients and bodyguards/Team Leader are away in order to prevent someone from boobytrapping them. Add in a sniper for overwatch and you have 8 men. Plus you need 5 more men to handle a second shift at midnight and to stay behind and guard the clients home during the day (so it isn't booby-trapped while you are out with the clients on a shopping trip.)
Add in two more guys to watch the home's security monitors 24 hours per day (two shifts) and you are up to 15 men. And this is just a bare minimum of protection. Hopefully, one of those 15 men knows how to shop for groceries and cook.


3) It is also useful to look at the formations bodyguards use --
how the guard car protects the client car in traffic, how the bodyguards assume formation around the client's car before the client steps out, how the bodyguards surround the client while he is moving from the
car to a building, how the bodyguards maneuver in close quarters like the hallways of buildings or near crowds, and the reaction drills to various events
like ambushes. Also at electronic security systems and how they can be compromised, explosives detection, countersurveillance, fortifications,etc.

See e.g., http://www.scribd.com/doc/4829385/Bodyguard-Manual ,

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/army/fm/19-10/Ch19.htm ,

February 3, 2014 at 1:02 PM

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