This pretty well sums it up, IMO. The basics, the essentials, are always the same (in no particular order): shelter, warmth, water, food, and basic medical supplies/treatment. If you have secured those, survival goes from a mere possibility to a probability.

The philosophical side of evaluating what we are preparing for has more to do with motivation than anything else. It's perhaps a little boring to discuss readiness for a weather-related power outage, but exciting to talk about a massive disruption of the whole social and governmental order. If the latter motivates you to assemble those essentials for your family, fine - you'll be ready for the power outage, too.

I have begun a shift away from specific emergency preparedness toward securing those essentials. Oh, I have to consider some likely scenarios like everyone else - hence the snow shovel, extra gloves and boots that go in the back of the car during the winter. Long-term preparedness, however, is now simply a focus on providing those essentials for a reasonable period of time under the assumption that outside aid will be a day late and a dollar short.

And guess what - it's still kinda fun...