Comment by mindcrime | Hacker News Reader

Comment by mindcrime | Hacker News Reader

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In terms of actual "EDC" I don't carry a backpack. I mean, yeah, I have a backpack I sometimes carry, but I think of it mainly as my "laptop bag" and I don't always go out carrying it.

EDC stuff I carry in my pockets or on my belt or whatever. Briefly, the list is:

1. Keychain with my car / home keys

2. Wallet

3. A small LED flashlight

4. A carbide tipped glass breaker

5. a Leatherman tool

6. A folding pocket knife

7. A USB thumb drive

8. My phone (Moto G7)

On a selective basis, add:

9. A Keltec PF-9 9mm pistol

10. A Gerber fixed blade knife

On a seasonal basis I also add

11. A ferro rod

12. A small block of magnesium

When it's cold enough to wear my heavy winter coat (which it rarely is) I have a few things tucked in my inside pockets:

- an Altoids tin filled with cotton balls dipped in Vaseline

- a box of waterproof matches

- a couple of "space blankets"

- an Altoids tin filled with small chunks of fatwood

- probably a couple of other things I don't remember offhand

As far as my backpack: there's so much random shit in there I couldn't even begin to list it all. Besides the actual laptop and charger, there's a USB hard drive, a yellow rubber duck, a pencil roll, a plush stuffed white rabbit, all sorts of USB cables, an extension cord, an RTL-SDR dongle and accessories, a couple of notebooks, a TI-89 calculator, a Bluetooth trackball, reading glasses, headphones, a couple of bottles of Coke Zero (usually), etc., etc., etc.

Where do you go to need a knife, a pistol, a glass breaker and a fire starter?

Hmm.. For none of those things does where I'm going on any given day really play any role in my decision of what to carry. That's the whole idea of "EDC".

But think about it; If you drive a car (to work, say) and you live anywhere where the daytime ambient temperature in the winter gets down into even, say, the 50's, it's not hard to imagine a scenario where most of those things could be useful. Somebody runs you off the road, or you have a front tire blowout, or skid on ice, and go into some water? The glass-breaker lets you break the glass to get out of your rapidly sinking car. The knife can be used to process wood by batoning, and the firestarter lets you start a fire to keep your cold, wet, body warm until help arrives.

A pistol? I'm not going get get into some big "gun control" debate here, but I'll just say that I prefer to carry a pistol more or less all the time, excepting for a small number of places where it isn't allowed. I hope like hell I never need it, but "it's better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it."

I should also add that I spend a fair amount of time in the outdoors, either fishing, hiking, or bike riding, usually by myself. As such, I like to be equipped to handle various situations that could potentially arise.

Prepare prepare prepare. That's the name of the game.

That's not entirely the case. It's actually a matter of risk assessment. You need to consider the "cost" of being prepared based on the risk (likelihood x consequence).

The effort/cost/maintenance of being prepared. Everyone has a different threshold.

For example in what op carries in case his car goes off the road, what happens if you suffer a large cut in that accident? Do you carry clotting agents? What about snake bites and allergic reactions? Do you carry the appropriate medication too?

At a certain point being "more prepared" is the wrong choice. For some people, in an urban environment, simply have a phone and some cash is prepared enough, and that's not necessarily wrong.

That's not entirely the case. It's actually a matter of risk assessment. You need to consider the "cost" of being prepared based on the risk (likelihood x consequence).

The effort/cost/maintenance of being prepared. Everyone has a different threshold.

100% agree. There's always a cost/benefit analysis in play. Nobody can truly be "prepared" for every eventuality, and even if it were possible in principle to do so, some preparations would have outlandish costs that would not weigh well compared to the likelihood of that event in question ever actually happening.

I self-identify as a "prepper" to a very mild degree. Eg, I don't spend half my monthly salary on stockpiling ammunition and food, and I don't have an underground bunker, yadda, yadda, yadda. I do keep a couple of extra boxes of ammo in the closet for firearms I own, and I do keep a (small) stash of certain dried and canned foods in my storage unit... but that's more a byproduct of that thinking that "I rent this storage unit anyway, why not keep a little bit of survival food in here just in case?" Not like I would rent a storage unit just to stockpile survival supplies.

But ya know... some people would (and do). Some people do build complex underground bunkers and stockpile thousands of rounds of ammo, etc. To each is own, I suppose. I'd like to think I take a fairly balanced approach of spending a small amount of time and money on things that could have a big return someday, or if that doesn't ever come up, can simply be taken out of storage and used normally or whatever.

At a certain point being "more prepared" is the wrong choice. For some people, in an urban environment, simply have a phone and some cash is prepared enough, and that's not necessarily wrong.

Yep, yep. I lean the way I do for various reasons despite living in an urban area. Some of it is that I grew up as a "country boy" and some of those life lessons were internalized at a young age. For me, carrying a knife, carrying a pistol, etc. are very normal, routine, expected things. Add in the fact that I do spend quite a bit of time outdoors, doing solo activities, the thought of carrying a flashlight and a ferro-rod or whatever becomes just another "cheap, lightweight, non-intrusive thing I can do that might never be required, but causes no harm or undue burden and might save my life one day."

If you live an unusual life, you may need unusual tools. Also, there's probably more than a little low-key play acting, like when a normie wears "aviator" sunglasses. When I was a young kid, maybe 8, and home alone, I walked around the house in a terry cloth robe and a 8" chef knife in one of the pockets. Same thing.

Also, there's probably more than a little low-key play acting, like when a normie wears "aviator" sunglasses.

Sure thing. I freely acknowledge that the probability of me needing to use a ferro-rod "in anger" to start a fire in a survival situation is relatively low. Carrying it is more just a part of my identity that anything probably at this point.

That said... I've been caught out in flash "pop up" thunderstorms before, gotten rained on, and found myself feeling cold, while quite a distance from my vehicle or anything, while out fishing or doing similar things. At least once I was caught out in a storm and was on the verge of hunkering down under a bridge embankment and starting a fire, right when the rain let up. So it's not purely an affectation or prop or whatever.

You must have large pants

What are the "cotton balls dipped in Vaseline" for?

> What are the "cotton balls dipped in Vaseline" for?

Fire starting. They will easily take a spark from a ferro rod and convert it into an open flame. And they burn long enough to make it pretty easy to transition to a sustainable fire. These things are a popular DIY fire starting accessory among people who are into bushcraft / survivalism / whatever.

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