It was intentional, thus the smiley face.

A lot of people are wired so they are almost incapable of doing nothing, and a lot of times doing what they think of as nothing is exactly what they should be doing. Its really not nothing to take some time to think about what is going on and formulating a plan rather than trying to hurry up and do "something". Many times the rush to do something ends up in doing the wrong thing.

Our society often puts a premium on "doing" as opposed to "thinking", and people have learned to appear busy as a self defense mechanism.

A lot of people are also convinced they are infallible, despite much evidence to the contrary. They just cannot believe they have screwed up so they press on. There are others who believe their training and experience will get them through, but that turns out to be a bad choice many times. One might think that people who have training and experience would be far less likely to take unnecessary risks just because they are unnecessary, but it does not always work out that way.

I am not so much convinced there is a brain survival mode. I am convinced there are times people are not thinking clearly about their situation and it bites them in the back side. I suspect it is hubris or panic that gets them into trouble.

I am constantly reminded as I read and write on this site and on others, how profoundly a person's location affects what they know, what they do, and what they believe. An example would be the use of stoves. In California, there seems to be an inner fear of wildfire, due no doubt to actual wildfire events repeated annually there. All outdoors people there seem to carry a little stove with them. Where I live, there is little to no chance of wildfire most of the year. Whenever I want fire, I build a little one on the ground, get close, and stay warm. Other than my two burner Coleman for camp, I have never owned a little stove. I'm sure that equally experienced outdoors persons from California (and other areas as well) would think I was crazy for that. I just don't need a stove. Any test that would purport to measure outdoor skills and strategies would have to be strictly regional in scope and situational in focus.

Good point about Californians and our stoves. Just offhand, I can think of three really large wildfires in this region originating from escaped campfires (one was intended to be a distress signal). An additional factor is the serious aridity in Arizona and California at some times of the year. Another local fire (21,000 acres) began from sparks originating in a roadside plinking session. I had been in the area just 48 hours earlier and I had decided that the woods were just too dry for safe entry - I was going to stay away until the rains came.

I've got lots of really cool small stoves (actually they can get pretty hot). We can export to Minnesota.

I tend to agree with dougwalkabout. I like the test as a diagnostic or thought-provoking exercise. If you can nudge people a little into thinking about simple things power outages at first, then you may be able to get them to ramp it up over time. Use the test as a tool of encouragement and reinforcement. Throw some off-beat ones in there also just to mix it up; something about marshmallows or bathing cats.

I have only got half way through this thread but I like the idea of a quiz. Honestly it would have to be a test / quiz that would get you to think vs a test with right or wrong answers. I guess anything that keeps the "plan" or a plan anyway, on the forefront of your brain then it has accomplished what it set out to do. It made you learn, think and question. I like to critically think out things, however, after a while you get VERY fast at going through a scenerio. I like the idea.

Actually, I agree; I didn't mean that literally.

It's more about being open to perceiving a situation from different perspectives, through different lenses as it were.

And from that, being willing to accept that your situation has the potential to go sideways, your priorities have changed, and your actions must be redirected accordingly.

Many people seem to stay on the rails of their everyday, normal priorities and routines. Meeting a schedule, getting to a destination, etc. So they keep pushing down that snow-covered road, for example, when they should have turned around. By the time they are aware that they're in trouble, they're in deep trouble.

I don't know if it's possible to learn this without having a number of near misses.

Anyone want to set one of these quizzes? I'm not sure what people mean. It was the 'for no reason; make a snap decision without any thought' bit that we all found foolish. So maybe a quiz would be worthwhile
The Sock

Excellent! I have mushrooms, mud, and cool wet moss to trade.