
Doomsday planning for less crazy folk - f-
http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/prep/
======
unoti
I've done three things for emergency preparedness that are actually quite fun
and I'd recommend to anyone:

1) Become a certified emergency medical responder. It's a one semester course
you can take at your local community college. It's the first step to becoming
an EMT if you want to keep going. You learn things including CPR, wound
management, dealing with broken bones, heart attacks, car accidents,
transporting patients, even emergency childbirth. I enjoyed the class
immensely. Now I'm a lot less afraid of medical disasters because I have a
plan and an impressive first aid kit, and I know how to use it.

2\. Become an amature radio operator. As a technologist, it's fun to get in
touch with my roots using older technology. I've been working on being able to
operate using battery and solar panels, which has been a blast to learn about
and experiment with. I can also operate portably while camping, bouncing waves
off the atmosphere and back either towards the horizon to talk thousands of
miles away, or straight up towards space and reflecting off the atmosphere
back down to talk within a 300 mile range (this is called NVIS). Learning and
practicing these skills is awesome fun.

3\. Camping, and having the food water and equipment in hand to camp for
several days. We have a few 7 gallon water tanks we use for camping which we
keep full, in addition to our always evolving camping supplies. We take
frequent camping trips.

Doing these things is educational, challenging, enriching and fun! I encourage
everyone to do it.

It's also worth noting that you can get a ham radio for $40 that's higher
power and will work at longer range than the FRS/GMRS radios. The FCC limits
FRS radios to half a watt, and ham radios don't have that limit.

~~~
linuxguy2
Do you have any specific suggestions for a radio like you describe?

~~~
CompuHacker
BaoFeng UV-5R and its newer variants.

------
sirsar
> _Since the amount_ needed _is directly proportional to how much you
> currently make, it makes relatively little difference if your household
> brings in $70k or $140k a year._

I have to take issue with this. If your salary doubles, your needs do _not_
double along with it. $100K is right around the 80th percentile of US
household income. That means 80% of households (~250 million people) in the US
are living on less than that. Maybe you can too, despite your paycheck being
higher. And if your household's take-home pay suddenly increases from $70k to
$140k, see if you can fight the urge to follow that increase with your
spending habits. Keep the old car, pay off your debts, and save for a rainy
day (layoff, medical emergency, etc).

It absolutely baffles me that prevailing financial habits in the US seem to
include spending as much money as possible.

~~~
edent
The term is "Lifestyle Inflation". It's seductive.

Now you don't _have_ to slum it in an economy class seat. You're now able to
afford a _real_ laptop. You can _treat yourself_ to...

Near enough everyone does it. If you've ever thought "I'm going to buy the
brand-name [pasta|batteries|phone|insurance]" you're susceptible too.

The thing is, it's not much fun living as though you were poor - cutting
coupons, spending time working out which vegetable gives you the most
nutrition per Kg, scrimping and saving. So for every extra $£€ you make, you
can give yourself a short-term dopamine hit at the expense of long-term
planning.

It's one of the reasons why, in the UK, we're moving to mandatory pension
provision. Unless you take action, a fixed percentage of your wage will be
placed into a pension scheme. As your wage rises, so will your long term
savings.

~~~
harperlee
> If you've ever thought "I'm going to buy the brand-name
> [pasta|batteries|phone|insurance]"

I think that's the key. You stop needing to think about lots of things.
There's a real cognitive cost of being poor.

~~~
zdkl
One could argue that is the point of currencies, to exchange labour for
comfort. You exchange your work to spend cognitive power as you'd prefer
instead as what you'd concretely need

------
dalke
Why didn't any of the planning include participation in emergency preparedness
organizations, or funding watchdog organizations to make sure that services
are mismanaging their resources (e.g, Pro Publica and NPR's exposes on the
American Red Cross, at [http://www.propublica.org/article/the-red-cross-
secret-disas...](http://www.propublica.org/article/the-red-cross-secret-
disaster) and [https://www.propublica.org/article/how-the-red-cross-
raised-...](https://www.propublica.org/article/how-the-red-cross-raised-half-
a-billion-dollars-for-haiti-and-built-6-homes) ).

The closest it gets is "Make friends with neighbors", but plenty more is
possible. I did see the comment that many will "pray for the government to
bail us out", but that leaves out the people who will volunteer to be part of
the NGOs to help others, and suggests that we, the people, have nothing to do
with the actions of the government.

It's very detailed on what you can buy, but doesn't give any advice on
figuring out which are real worries, and which are movie scenarios. Consider
"Respiratory and environmental protection", where "If you worry about releases
from chemical plants or overturned ammonia tankers, 3M multi gas cartridges
($17) and half facepieces ($12) offer robust protection when sized and fitted
properly. In such an event, it would be also important to develop a plan for
sealing your home".

Why not recommend visiting the Local Emergency Planning Committee to learn
about any dangerous chemicals in your area? That would give an idea of which
chemical plants are nearby, and a better idea of how to respond. It may be
more likely that there's a fertilizer plant nearby (as residents in Waco
discovered in 2013) or gas pipeline (as residents in Adair County, KY
discovered in 2105, and residents near Carlsbad, N.M. discovered in 2000) and
you need to worry about explosion more than gas problems.

In any case, I've now looked through a few dozen news reports of chemical
plant problems, and found no example where gas masks, etc. would be useful.

On the other hand, and using the recent news report about Flint as an example,
it seems that occasional water and air testing for long-term, low-grade
poisons would more useful and cost effective than worrying about short-term,
acute events.

Personally, I would prefer to see things structured around known problems -
what does one need should there be a heavy metals spill upstream of you, like
what happened at the Animas River? How much money would you need in order to
be able to move, and no one wants to buy your property because the well water
on the land is now toxic? How should you prepare for an oil pipeline spill in
your backyard, as the residents of Mayflower, AR (and many others) have had?

When would it be better to put the money into applying more pressure on the
EPA and FEMA, for more oversight and more funding for oversight, than to
assume that individual preparedness is the right solution?

BTW, as it stands, its discussion about what to do in case of hurricanes is
nearly non-existent, mostly saying "If you own a house, especially in a region
prone to earthquakes or tropical storms, you should probably have a
sledgehammer, a chainsaw (with a charged battery or some fuel at hand), bolt
cutters, and a pry bar." Chainsaws after Hurricane Andrew were worth their
weight in gold - as part of the cleanup process. But if we're talking
planning, then window storm shutters are also important, as is tree trimming
before the season starts.

What it should really do is point to more complete resources, like
[http://www.ready.gov/hurricanes](http://www.ready.gov/hurricanes) or
[http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/prepare/ready.php](http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/prepare/ready.php)
. Viewing the latter, I see it includes things like "Make sure schools and
daycares have School Emergency Plans" and "Pet owners should have plans to
care for their animals" which should also be part of any plan.

~~~
f-
Hm, I sort of suspect that you skipped much of the first part of the guide,
which talks about identifying the relevant risks, including - say - studying
flood maps, identifying nearby industries, walking around the home to spot
fire hazards, etc? And talks a lot about not obsessing about unlikely issues,
when your greatest worries may be your own financial security or a house fire.
It specifically instructs people to map out plausible risks and write response
plans before they buy a single thing listed in part II.

The whole purpose of part II is to go over some cost-effective purchases _iff_
you have a robust basis to prioritize a particular threat and a rough idea of
how you want to solve it. So yeah, for example, the mention of respirators has
to be interpreted in that context; very few people can meaningfully benefit
from a respirator.

There are also mentions of being able to board up windows in locations prone
to severe weather, etc. I would really like to address your concerns and
improve the doc, but as it is, I'm sort of struggling to pinpoint the nature
of the complaint :-(

~~~
dalke
I double-checked, and I still see nothing about the _process_ of how to
identify the risk level.

For example, it says 'For example, do you live in a 100-year flood zone?' but
does not describe how to find that out. It doesn't mention the term 'flood
map', or where one finds a flood map. Do you go to the library? Is it easy to
find online?

I tried now for Santa Fe, NM.
[http://www.newfloodmap.com/mountain/](http://www.newfloodmap.com/mountain/)
doesn't list Santa Fe county, and in any case I can't tell if it's a legit
site or a value added site trying to scam money out of me by looking official
and packing together resources that are freely available. I gave up trying to
find it online - I think I can get it from City Hall.

Regarding chemical risks, as I pointed out, it doesn't mention the Local
Emergency Planning Committee. Quoting Wikipedia:

> Under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA), Local
> Emergency Planning Committees (LEPCs) must develop an emergency response
> plan, review the plan at least annually, and provide information about
> chemicals in the community to citizens.

Someone who is looking for a guide to help with preparation, and doesn't know
to keep extra water around, is likely also someone who needs help to map out
plausible risks, and could use a pointer to legally mandated resources that
are supposed to be available to help with those risks.

Then again, if I don't believe the government is going to bail me out of
problems, why should I believe that those government maps and government
information is worthwhile for my planning? Are they reliable? What is the
experience of others with that information?

As a case in point, regarding 'relevant risks', the text says "Although we are
entering the realm of very unlikely events, if you worry about encountering an
overturned chemical tanker.."

This would be an excellent example of how to do a cost-benefit analysis. A
first approximation is easy - how many people have been killed or injured by a
chemical tanker where a mask would have helped? What's the probability of that
happening to the reader? What does a mask cost, including the need to recharge
or replace it? If it's a 1:1 billion chance per year, and it costs $10/year,
then that's saying that your life is worth about $200 million to you.

But if that's so, then perhaps other things, like storing important documents,
or copies of important documents, in a safety deposit box is much more
worthwhile. Or driving at a more sedate speed (the first paragraph of safety
tip #2 is very true!) Or remembering to not drive into flowing water, which
kills many more people every year than gas from an overturned chemical tanker.

> board up windows in locations prone to severe weather ... I'm sort of
> struggling to pinpoint the nature of the complaint :-(

My complaint is that the document tries to take on a lot, and yet does too
little.

There are a lot of resources for many of these disasters. There's no way your
document can cover all of the things to worry about with a hurricane. You
_have_ to point to more complete resources elsewhere. It's not a simple matter
of "boarding up windows", since that's only one of several options. I
mentioned hurricane shutters; my parents had corrugated metal shutters for the
window, stored under the house because when a storm is coming, everyone is
trying to get boards for their windows. While on the other hand, a hurricane
is more predictable. It's okay to wait until the last 24 hours to fill up the
tub with water to use for flushing the toilet, which is not an option in
earthquake country.

Accept that your document will be incomplete, and point people to where to go
for more information.

The most common major threats (tornado, blizzard, hurricane, flooding,
wildfire, sinkhole (yes, I'm from Florida), earthquake, avalanche,
volcano/lahar flow, tsunami, etc.) all have official guidelines for how to
prepare for them. Use them, and add to them. Don't try to be an all-in-one
solution.

~~~
f-
The guide doesn't go into specific instructions on how to find flood maps and
doesn't do a risk analysis on _everything_ (although it provides numbers for
many of the more common risks) chiefly because (a) it's difficult to provide
answers that are universally applicable no matter where you are; and (b) I
sort of trust the reader to be able to search / ask around; (c) it's already
60 pages of text.

The other thing I sort of learned is that when you spam people with links to
hundreds of external resources, you actually lower the odds that they will
stay focused and read any of them.

But yeah, maybe a catalog of links to ready.gov and the like may be useful at
some point. I actually had several, but I think I lost them in subsequent
edits.

For the chemical tanker bit, see section 3.7, which talks about doing a risk
analysis before wasting time on such stuff; and in general, most of part I,
which tries over and over again to drive across the point that there are some
things you really need to worry about, and that they don't involve gas masks
and night vision goggles.

~~~
dalke
Who is your target audience?

These are people who you remind - quite well, I'll add - that commonplace
things are more deadly than apocalypse planning.

And you remind them that they need water.

And you humorously recommend they download an XML dump of Wikipedia.

You recommend a Garmin Foretrex 401 Waterproof Hiking GPS, but while you
recommend 'both a country road atlas and a more detailed map of your county or
state' it's in a context where you likely mean road map, and not something
where a hiking GPS would be that useful.

And you bring up gas masks in the context of local factories as well, with
recommendations of masks to buy; why do you have the text unless you think
it's useful?

Sure, the reader can search / ask around ... but then why have this essay in
the first place?

Another thing that's missing is to train for emergency situations. The only
times I found "train" or "practice" was in the context of weapons and
fighting. But you also need to practice using the GPS in hiking situations, if
only to learn what basic terms like "datum" mean and what the modes do, and
practice making a fire (else why have the matches?), and replacing the tubes
on your bike. It mentions 'dig out a latrine' using a shovel and a pickax ..
now where do they go for learning how deep to dig, or even that there is such
a thing as good latrine practices? (Me? I learned it from the Boy Scout
manual.) It's better to practice setting up a tent instead of doing so the
first time in a dark.

Sure, you can assume the reader just knows to do this .. but why don't those
same people know they should 'sign up for a basic course or have someone truly
competent take you to the range' to practice with a gun?

Go to back to an earlier theme of mine, one of the points is "Biking on public
roads? Wear a helmet and bright-colored clothing, stay well clear of the doors
of parked vehicles, move in a straight line instead of weaning in and out of
the traffic, and watch for cars trying to make right turns."

Like most of the rest of the document, this is a very individualistic
response. A community response would be to join cycle advocacy groups and
fight for usable dedicated bike paths. These are even safer. Yes, helmets,
etc. can be a short-term solution, but the long term solution should be to
minimize the need for these expensive, personal solutions and reduce overall
risk.

"Prepper culture", on the other hand, seems to avoid these sorts of community
solutions to the same problem. This document also ignores them.

------
DanBlake
I run a site that deals with alot of these people. I look at it like a risk vs
reward. I think for the vast amount of calamity's that could happen, you only
need to 'survive' for about 6 months before things would stabilize. If after 6
months you are still in trouble, chances are you are not going to particularly
enjoy life moving forward anyways.

So with those thoughts, it almost seems prudent to just buy 1k in freeze dried
food ( [http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-YEAR-MOUNTAIN-HOUSE-FOOD-
ENTREES-R...](http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-YEAR-MOUNTAIN-HOUSE-FOOD-ENTREES-
RESERVE-10-CANS-CASES-FREEZE-DRIED-SURVIVAL-/231806997821)? ) which can last
you a year if needed. The only other things you really need is water (tons of
purification options out there).

The next steps are protection and information. You can get a firearm for about
500$ with ample ammo and a world radio with a solar charger for 100$.

~~~
f-
The page talks about it a bit, but in an attempt to differentiate itself from
the usual, mildly paranoid "prepper" content, it does its best not to get hung
up on more outlandish scenarios, such as fighting off zombies and surviving
for months without water and food.

I basically tried to approach it from the perspective of threat modeling /
risk management for real life; and by that metric, incidents such as losing a
job are far more likely than a zombie apocalypse. I have seen far too many
people in the Silicon Valley discover that the hard way :-(

~~~
Nexxxeh
Zombies are used in the survivalist/prepper community as a euphemism for
people looking to take your stuff.

Because describing how to defend your home against humans can be legally
risky, and off-putting.

With the exception of the actually crazy, people aren't actually talking about
zombies.

It also injects a degree of humour.

~~~
f-
Sure, and I'm using "space zombies" humorously, to broadly refer to all sorts
of apocalyptic / TEOTWAWKI scenarios that many hardcore preppers are
preoccupied with.

Most prepper guides devote a lot of time to societal collapse, complete self-
sufficiency, urban combat, and wilderness survival topics, while dedicating
much less attention to more pragmatic risks that one can prepare for without
making profound lifestyle changes or buying a farm.

~~~
LoSboccacc
buying a farm is a huge huge risk tho, isn't it? in a scenario where society
truly collapse, at least, it makes you a prime target.

I'd like the other approach more: secret stash, going dark for a year, wait
for tribes to stabilize the territory they control, emerge with some useful
skill and bargain access/protection of a well armed/established tribe.

~~~
lmm
> buying a farm is a huge huge risk tho, isn't it? in a scenario where society
> truly collapse, at least, it makes you a prime target.

Not really - you can always walk away, so at worst you're no worse off than
you were without it.

~~~
LoSboccacc
but you would basically have wasted all the resources spent to purchase the
farm pre-apocalypse

~~~
lmm
Sure, but if you instead spend them on something "normal" like videogames
you've probably also wasted them in an apocalypse scenario.

~~~
dalke
Sure, but the apocalypse scenario - and there have been uncountable apocalypse
scenarios even in my lifetime, starting with 'The Jupiter Effect' \- is also
very unlikely to happen. Buying farmland you never use or enjoy, and which
brings in no rent profit, is a waste if there is no apocalypse. While playing
videogames brings a lot of enjoyment.

The premise of this piece is to be "rational". To do that you need some idea
of the odds. If you think another Tunguska event is something to prepare for,
then having a farm is probably no better than playing video games - I can't
even guess which would be safer from a random 10+MT event, and playing games
is more fun and safer than doing the extra drive back and forth to the farm or
operating the farm.

------
jonstokes
I've been following the prepping scene for a while, and in a professional
capacity since I started AllOutdoor.com as a side project for some friends. We
figured out really quickly that preppers were a massive audience for outdoors
content, so the site skews that way.

(FWIW I keep a few weeks' supply of food for my family on-hand, but I'm not
interested in prepping for anything bigger. More here:
[http://www.alloutdoor.com/2015/03/11/doomsday-
prepper/](http://www.alloutdoor.com/2015/03/11/doomsday-prepper/))

What is interesting to me is the degree to which collapse has gone mainstream.
At this point I've seen prepping go from something that you didn't want anyone
(including your spouse) to know you were into, to something that is the topic
of serious, non-snarky discussion (with 165 points!) here at Hacker News.

I predict that at some point in the next 18 months or so, we'll see an article
in The New Yorker about prepping that takes it seriously. Once the New York
media scene is able to talk about it openly, it will have moved out of the
realm of "crazypants stuff that we don't talk about here, except to snark at
it" and then it will be time to go all-in on the stock market because we will
have reached Peak Doom.

Anyway, I just skimmed the linked article but it seems like a very good intro.
About the only thing I quibble with (so far) is the faint whiff of goldbuggery
in the financial section.

------
hackercomplex
I'll just leave this here..

[http://www.freightfarms.com/](http://www.freightfarms.com/)

it's an example of how the startup ecosystem is attempting to disrupt some of
the areas of concern that fuel the 'survival culture'.

here's another example: [http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/10/built-in-brooklyn-
gotham-gr...](http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/10/built-in-brooklyn-gotham-
greens-turns-rooftops-into-urban-farms/)

I personally can't wait to see this urban agriculture technology arrive in
every city coast to coast, so that collectively we aren't so dependent on
"just in time shipping" grocery store infrastructure.

I do think that this day is on the horizon, but until then I personally try
not to think of people as 'crazy' when they feel the need to get their beans,
bullets, and band-aids squared away.

~~~
jakejake
I personally think the "crazy" label kicks in when the person has severely
diminished their actual, real life in order to prepare for an unlikely future
scenario. Especially when that scenario is strangely specific and seems more
like fantasy where the preparer will become a vigilante hero in the new world.

Simply being prepared for emergencies is certainly not crazy. Saving money for
an employment emergency seems like the most real threat to most of us. But I
guess that's not as much fun as stock-piling guns and ammo for a zombie
apocalypse.

~~~
dnautics
There's a lot of things you can do that are even sometimes better for your
well-being. Buying gold, for example, can be a relatively safe hedge against
unemployment (and even science-fiction-level economic collapse).

~~~
goblin89
Honest question: how does one buy currency with gold even under current
circumstances? Let’s even forget the doomsday for a moment.

OP mentions gold as safe non-crazy way to protect savings against long-term
inflation and depressions. However, from what I understand, any outsider would
be extremely lucky to sell it at a rate anything close to the market, and
common sense suggests that if dollar plunges it’d become proportionately
trickier.

If selling it isn’t as tricky as it seems, then the reverse question comes up:
how to buy it now without being ripped off?

~~~
hackercomplex
I think your confused about gold. Any coin shop or pawn shop in America will
give you close to spot price in USD for the yellow metal. You don't even need
to show ID.

The hard part has been.. how do you buy or sell or pay with gold
electronically while having a convenient audit trail so that it's not a time
consuming process to file your taxes, but that's also solved thanks to a
startup founded in part by a senior paypal exec:
[https://www.bitgold.com/](https://www.bitgold.com/)

------
jcrawfordor
There are a number of 'official' resources on this as well, including a
variety of publications of FEMA and ARC, e.g.:

[http://www.redcross.org/images/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m4...](http://www.redcross.org/images/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m4440181_Food_and_Water-
English.revised_7-09.pdf)

It's useful to peruse publications of these agencies in depth in order to
understand what the government and NGOs plan to do in the case of major
disasters - when you're planning for scenarios that don't involve the
government turning on you, you should understand what these organizations will
and will not be able to do for you. Hint: while they will try very hard, do
not count on government or NGOs coming in with plenty of supplies particularly
quickly. ARC emphasizes being prepared for 72 hours without aid, and I think
this is a lowest-common-denominator strategy. It will take longer when there
is serious infrastructure damage, even assuming that everything goes to plan.

One of my major concerns with the prepper community though is that they
frequently overemphasize your own property. The most common type of disaster
to affect people, by a huge margin, is home fire. _The most likely disaster to
happen to you is your house burning down._ So while stocking supplies in your
house is a great idea, do not take it too far: be sure that you absolutely
minimize irreplaceable items in your home. If your house burns down, have a
plan for where you will go for temporary housing, make sure that you will be
able to access money for food (don't keep it all under your mattress!), etc.
Have a longer-term plan for smooth economic recovery. Important documents like
deeds and titles are almost certainly safer in a bank vault than in your own
home because of the careful fireproofing of these vaults. Anything of that
sort that you keep in your home should be kept in some sort of fire safe
(which should be watertight as well), but be aware that a cheap First Alert
fire box will only be rated for less than one hour of exposure and probably
won't last that long. You need to spend a lot of money for something with good
fire durability.

~~~
f-
Yup. In fact, the guide talks about home fires as one of the most significant
dangers (right after going insolvent or getting hurt); and cites the 72 hour
figure. It also highlights that some of the prepper ideas, such as stockpiling
gasoline, actually make you less safe.

------
jqm
Between Christmas and New Year a massive surprise blizzard hit the area I live
in. We were on vacation and got home a few days later. We couldn't get back
into town for 2 days because the roads were closed (snow in infrequent enough
here the city and county don't have snow plow equipment).

The neighbors called (they are in their late 70s). Half a mile down a dirt
road they hadn't been able to get out for 3 days and were getting a little
scared. We picked up a few groceries (the store shelves were pretty empty as
trucks hadn't been able to get into town) and parked on the highway and hiked
them in. Then it was hike half a mile through deep snow to the car parked on
the highway for the next two days until the county managed to get the dirt
road to our houses cleared.

Very revealing experience. It's not a good idea to imagine technology or
society is going to solve all problems in a timely manner. When things go bad
on a massive scale, especially when it's unexpected, you are on very often on
your own for a bit even in this day and age. It's a good idea to be at least
mildly prepared.

------
jmnicolas
What's funny for a foreigner like me is that the "preparedness scene" seems to
exhibit a lot of American cliches :

\- it's never reasonable : you prepare for the end of the world or a "multi
generational collapse" not "just" a "little" earthquake or a flood

\- you need a Hollywood budget : a well stocked retreat that will allow you to
"survive" without changing any of your habits

\- guns, lots of guns : I remember someone recommending having 10'000 (yes,
ten thousand) ammo for each semi-auto carbine you had (no less than 2 per
member of your family of course, not including handguns, knives, handgrenades
etc)

\- fatality is never an option : end of the world, multi generational collapse
? So what ? You just need to store more food, dig deeper for your bunker, and
buy more guns (of course ;-)

In fact I believe it's the first time I read something reasonable about
preparedness in English !

------
Outdoorsman
The author touches on a lot of important points, without going overboard, and
the article is worth reviewing as a list of things to consider if the SHTF,
for whatever reason...

Tailoring a "plan" to fit your individual circumstances is probably the key
take-away...

Putting yourself in a position to provide the big four--water, food, shelter,
and security--for a month for yourself and those dear to you is not incredibly
expensive or time consuming....

------
xirdstl
> Insolvency. If a person over the age of 40 tells you that they have never
> lost a job, they are pretty lucky (or lying).

I know a lot of lucky people then. It's absolutely smart to be prepared in the
case you lose your job, but is it really that rare to make it 40+ without
getting fired or laid off?

~~~
Rantenki
For this audience? Yes. Startups have finite lifespans, and even when they
succeed they are likely to go through a period of upheaval which could involve
job instability. I've been laid off several times in the last 20 years, always
due to either the company running out of runway, or being pivoted out of a
job.

~~~
xirdstl
For the audience of Hacker News? Maybe. "Less crazy folk" encompasses a much
wider group, though, I'd wager.

~~~
ekianjo
And I'd add that not everyone reading Hacker News is working at a startup
either. There's a bunch of folks from large, stable companies checking HN as
well.

------
lmm
> Pepper spray. An excellent, temporarily incapacitating weapon - very
> difficult to resist and capable of buying you just enough time to escape.
> Works quickly and reliably at distances up to perhaps 10 feet; can also stop
> some animal attacks. Usually not heavily regulated, making it easy to obtain
> and carry even in places that frown upon other forms of armed self-defense.

This is not good advice everywhere. Here in the UK pepper spray is regulated
by the same law as firearms.

~~~
mycroft-holmes
Is there any right to self-defense in the UK?

~~~
lmm
IANAL, but my brief understanding is: you may only use force to defend
yourself against force, and you may only use lethal force to defend yourself
against lethal force. Self-defense is a valid defense against certain crimes
(which I understand is not quite the same thing as being a right, though I
can't say I really see the difference); there is no "castle doctrine". When
the famous Tony Martin case happened (a farmer shot and killed some burglars
(few people have guns in the UK, but farmers are an exception, and relatively
commonly own (licensed) shotguns on the grounds of needing to shoot vermin)),
I remember a local police officer's comment being "if they were shot in the
front he'll get off, but if they were shot in the back he's going to jail".

~~~
f-
I think this is pretty similar to the rest of the western world, and certainly
to the legal frameworks in much of the US. The interpretation is probably very
different, though. So is the legality of carrying weapons in anticipation of
an assault...

------
jerf
I really don't have time to make this, but I am going to make a wish and hope
either someone else runs with it, or points me to it. I'd love to have a
subscription service where I put in $X/month, lets me select from a few
priorities and maybe check off things I already have, and start shipping
sensible supplies to me on a schedule.

(I googled around and saw
[http://www.myapocabox.com/](http://www.myapocabox.com/) , but to my mind
that's more parlor trick or even just something you sorta do for fun if you're
in that culture. I'm talking something more like where you put in $X/month,
and unless you say you already have one, it starts you off with basic first
aid, moves to other basics, maybe throws some long-term food supplies in after
a few months, etc. Something meant just to make you robust against reasonable
disasters moreso than something to help you recarve civilization out of the
nearest copse of trees.)

It's important and useful to be robust against real issues like power loss for
a week (it's happened) or other such basics, but it's hard to keep a list
yourself and expensive enough if you try to prep for it all at once that it
inhibits doing it.

~~~
jmnicolas
So you're not in the camp of 'the government will help me' but you're in the
camp 'a private company will help me' ?

Only you can know what supplies and know-how you will need for the specific
disaster scenarios that you might encounter.

I'm sure you don't need more than 2 hours to make a plan and one hour a month
after that to buy the things you would need. If you care enough you should be
able to find the time.

~~~
jerf
Don't recall saying anything about government or private companies. A bit
strange to claim how only an individual can know what they need on an article
about what people need. And I explicitly meant more prep than I can indeed do
in 2 hours or with a month's discretionary income, not to mention the
possibility of helping others do it.

I can see you're really chomping at the bit to attack, attack, attack
somebody, but why don't you go find a better target? Or, failing that, stop
jamming words in my mouth and then attacking those?

~~~
jmnicolas
Sorry if it came as an attack it was not my intention. I apologize. English is
not my native language and I'm afraid I did a poor job at explaining myself.

What I meant was : don't loose your time with a private company that will send
you probably useless prep stuff since they don't know you, your needs and the
scenarios you're preparing for.

I believe you will always do better than them even if you don't dedicate a
whole lot of time to it.

I was comparing the government and private companies since I believe they will
do both a poor job helping you get prepared.

------
mitchtbaum
> But the universe is a _harsh mistress_ , and there is only so much faith we
> should be putting in good fortune, in benevolent governments, or in the
> wonders of modern technology. So, always have a backup plan.

Has Nature been unfaithful to us?(!!) A mother must discipline her children.
As far as I've seen, she does it out of love, even when it hurts. She simply
wants her children to grow up, far beyond what limits and mistakes they
currently make, preferably before getting burned.

\---

Thanks for this great post.. For more reliable lifestyle info, you can find a
treasure trove at [http://survivalistboards.com](http://survivalistboards.com)
, and if you just want to kick back and listen to some great dialogues before
stepping up: [http://thesurvivalpodcast.com](http://thesurvivalpodcast.com) ,
James Wesley Rawles, Cody Lundin, Marjory Wildcraft, peakmoment,
wildernessoutfitters, wranglerstar, ferfal, INETeconomics, ...

------
pavel_lishin
I wonder if anyone's written a guide for surviving a not-too-long term
emergency for residents of a large city. Everyone basically agrees that the
best thing to do in case of a large-scale emergency is to leave the city - but
my wife and I aren't prepared for camping, and we're definitely not prepared
to walk out of Manhattan with five million other people into Jersey.

Where's the guide for what to do in case of a solar storm that knocks out the
power grid for a month when you're a resident of Chicago, or New York, or Los
Angeles?

~~~
amk_
This is general advice for earthquakes and other disasters:

\- As soon possible, gather fresh water. Drain the pipes in sinks and
showerheads; if you don't have enough containers, fill up the bathtub.

\- Have non-perishable food on hand (cans mostly). Mind the expiration date.

\- Have a deadbolt (if you are worried about your neighbors).

\- Invest in a good first aid kit and learn how to use it. They sell larger
ones designed to live in your car or home (not the portable, throw-in-backpack
kind).

------
zrail
It's interesting that the author doesn't talk about insurance in the money
sections much. I find I sleep a lot better at night knowing that if we do have
a fire, or crash a car, or have a major health situation, or someone slips on
our sidewalk and sues us, we have adequate downside protection.

~~~
yodsanklai
> or someone slips on our sidewalk and sues us

first world problems :)

------
ismail
Hey, can anyone point to any resources related to hyper inflation/economic
crisis? Think zimbabwe or greece

------
timdeneau
We come with pretty good default settings.

Keep in shape, learn basic survival skills suitable to your climate, and keep
a small kit of portable tools. If anything catastrophic happens, enable
hunter-gatherer mode and start migrating. Our species did this for 95% of its
existence, you’ll be fine.

~~~
adrianN
For 95% percent of our existence, population density was waay lower than now.
If shit hits the fan in a populated area, and no outside help can get in,
people starve.

------
arca_vorago
I grew up in the rocky mountians, and even though the snows have been less so,
it was the sort of place my grandpa tells stories of blizzards 8ft deep that
would get people trapped in for weeks.

The number one thing you want is water or a way to get water.

Number two is food or ways to get food.

Number three is heating/shelter.

You get those three things and learn how to get them (hunting, fishing,
foraging, etc) and youll be just fine.

As for food, to give us a comfortable buffer, we had an entire wall dedicated
to 5 gallon buckets of freeze dried stuffs like egg, milk, beans, rice, basics
such as that.

Water is best to have you own independent well, and a filtration device for us
while foraging and a bigger one for local high volume water if there is no
well.

These basics are what anyone preparing for almost any disaster or emergency
should do.

------
sgt101
The best thing about the apocalypse that I have read is Justin Cronin's "The
Passage" \- book one of a trilogy, I'm a little way into book 2 "The Twelve".

Although, if The Passage were to happen all your preparations would be for
naught!

------
m00n
I noticed some strange behaviour on that website: When I mouse-select text
sometimes a word later in the same line would begin to wiggle around.

For example in the paragraph 'Gadget Upgrades'.

A short google search brought up nothing. Any clues?

------
ekianjo
> Global thermonuclear war (Alas Babylon, Mad Max, Fallout),

Pretty poor choice of references here. In terms of movies, "The Day After" is
the most viewed movie of all time, and certainly one of the best references
for the impact of Global Thermonuclear war and what happens next on an
individual level if you even make it. Mad Max is a fiction as best that has
about nothing to do with thermonuclear war (it just serves as a background to
start the story, but you can't see any of its consequences).

A little shocked the author did not mention it at all.

~~~
madengr
Threads was much better, and far more depressing, than The Day After.

~~~
jon-wood
For reasons I still don't fully understand our science teacher showed us that
film when I was about fifteen, and some of the scenes in it still haunt me. I
slightly blame it for my fascination with post-apocalyptica (and if that's not
a word, it should be).

This was in the late nineties, so long after the world was expecting nuclear
war at any moment, so I have no idea why she showed it - parts of it she
refused to watch, so I assume it wasn't just that she wasn't aware quite his
brutal it is.

~~~
camperman
The calm official-sounding voiceover in Threads is the worst part of it all I
reckon. It just gives it the feel of a documentary which makes it even
scarier.

~~~
madengr
Appears to be on Youtube:

[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8197B8DEF93FC7D9](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8197B8DEF93FC7D9)

------
beachstartup
back in the early 90s, they used to teach this stuff in schools here in
california (earthquake prep). it wasn't crazy at all, it was widely accepted
that you should have supplies for up to a week at home. i remember homework
assignments in elementary school related to this.

SF and LA were hit hard in 80s/90s by big earthquakes - that actually
happened. i grew up less than 20 miles from northridge - i remember eating
granola bars and boiling water after the northridge quake. _this shit actually
happened to me_ ; i ate actual fucking granola bars that we kept in actual
ziploc bags because our electricity actually didn't work and the stores were
actually closed. we surely wouldn't have starved, but they sure did come in
handy when you're hungry right after a huge earthquake. do you want to beg
your neighbors for a snack?

since that era we've had 2 genuine city-level SHTF situations (LA riots and
Katrina, more if you count 9/11 and lesser storm systems) and for some reason
preparedness has become _less_ of a concern. 20 years pass and people just
forget. memories are short. not mine.

i know multiple people who had to defend their lives and livelihoods with
guns. real, normal people who now work in tech like you and me, who had to
stand on roof tops with guns, in the middle of LA. right next to downtown.
imagine this happening in midtown manhattan, or market street in sf. it's
sheer madness, and it actually happened. and i'm sure anyone in the other LA
(louisiana) can tell the same kinds of stories. and where were the cops?
that's right - nowhere to be found when the shit hits the fan.

it can, and will, happen again. i think as you get older you start to realize
just how tenuous civilized society really is and how quickly it can revert to
an animalistic shitstorm. i keep several jerry cans of water and canned/dried
food in my place, and am capable of defending myself. people think i'm crazy
when i tell them i have this stuff. i think you're crazy if you don't. i know
_exactly_ what it's like to be woken up violently in the middle of the night
and find that everything around you has gone straight to hell.

[http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Timeline-The-
Northri...](http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Timeline-The-Northridge-
Earthquake-240665071.html)

6:50 a.m.: Hundreds of gas main and water main breaks reported. Parts of LA
and Ventura counties are without running water or gas.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgCiC6qTtjs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgCiC6qTtjs)

------
Adlai
No mention of Bitcoin?

Oh right, the experiment failed.

Too bad, too bad.

