As far as we can tell, definition means “honest description”. There are many creative and intelligent ways to phrase honest descriptions. One of our definitions for the phrase “survival kit”, and one which we feel quite reasonable, is “a kit containing the items necessary to ensure survival is a distinct possibility in basic worst-case (life-threatening) scenarios”. And yet, subpar definitions seem to be all the rage these days.
A currently popular definition of “survival kit” seems to be “to increase the likelihood of successfully performing certain tasks which might or might not be part and parcel to the livability of an ideally anticipated survival situation.”
How about we just use the practical survival kit definition “a kit designed to make an emergency survival situation easier”? Under this definition, the kit could be as small as a keyring or large as a steel storage container.
Definitions such as these are easily thought of as the design criteria for many popular “survival kits” that include such things as travel sewing kits, pencil and paper, and of course fishhooks. The one that comes immediately to mind is the “Altoids Tin Survival Kit”. Kits such as these do not adequately address the needs of many basic survival situations, such as amputation, snakebite, hypothermia, dehydration, self-defense, etc. Our thinking would have our survival kit address the most fundamental survival concepts, ensuring that immediate basic life-saving first-aid needs and immediate subsistence needs can be met.
Altoids tin kits are not designed to address every possible survival situation. In fact, I do not think you could address every possible survival situation even with the space of a steel storage container. Altoids kits are designed for one thing: to supplement other EDC gear in serving as an interim replacement in case you get separated from the primary pack/gear/kit you had with you. If you thought your life was saved by an Altoids tin from the get go, you grossly missed the point.