Survival is also an art of learning, some by reason, some by trial and error. The point in this case is in making an effort and thinking of something that should work. Sometimes you gotta be able to give these little experiments more than a day to prove up. There is an element of chance in all this too.

Here's how the equation works, you can choose to expend some energy trying to accomplish something sensible, even if it is a little unorthodox, on the chance that what you try might fail, or you can sit around and do nothing, and be assured of failure.

In addition to the mouse trap, it says he rigged some decent snares with the guitar strings as well. Hunting and trapping for survival typically has a low success rate, so increasing your odds by deploying as many tries as possible is perhaps the only suitable hedge, aside from being more prepared.

The point is, you gotta keep trying. A guitar trap is not an impractical effort, just not predictably successful.

BTW, I missed where it said he burned 3,000 kCal building this one trap. That number seems mighty excessive to me. I manage about 500 kCal on my elliptical going all out for half an hour. I can't imagine building this trap would be six times that effort. Maybe 3,000 calories, or 3 kCal would be a more appropriate and believable number in this case. The amount of work effort (3,000 kCal) claimed just to build the trap is unbelievable.