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Lumifer comments on Open thread for December 24-31, 2013 - Less Wrong Discussion

4 Post author: NancyLebovitz 24 December 2013 08:58AM

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Comment author: Metus 24 December 2013 07:48:37PM *  6 points [-]

Recently I ordered some free info material from my government in Germany about preparing for catastrophes and correct behaviour in case of one. It was surprisingly informative to read and I missed the long list of cited sources at the end but still I am willing to believe their advise.

This made me then wonder: What other quite 'fundamental' info of that kind is out there? I am wondering more specifically about info about infrequent but important events - either positive or negative - because that is where human rationality tends to fail horribly. Edit: I am not talking about survival/emergencies specifically. My question is not clear because I can't quite put my finger on what I am looking for yet. Recently I got something like a "summary to good health" from my health insurance which, among other things, lists dietary advice, exercise and all preventative tests they are paying for. I liked that very much, too. Maybe I am looking for extensive but not very deep overviews so I can check if I heard about all of the popular things I can do to help my life? Edit2: I am thinking about advice like "Take a first aid course, not many people do it, but it might save the life of someone important to you." The recurring theme seem to things not many people do and/or things that are relevant only in infrequent situations like buying a house for personal use, marriage or catastrophes.

It sounds somewhat like the boring advice repository which for some reason did not ring with me. Maybe it was the unsystematic, inconsistent nature of it?

Comment author: Lumifer 25 December 2013 12:09:25AM *  2 points [-]

What other quite 'fundamental' info of that kind is out there?

You'll have to specify "fundamental" better. What are you looking for? How to stop bleeding? How to start a fire in the rain? How to build a house with no tools other than an axe? How to run a farm with no engines or fertilizer?

In the US at least there is a large community/meme/circle of "survivalists" who are preparing for life after TEOTWAWKI -- The End Of The World As We Know It. They have active forums and LOTS of information about what to do after a catastrophe.

Comment author: Metus 25 December 2013 01:25:28AM 0 points [-]

See my edit. I know of that community as I read about them in a mixture of social and practical fascination. I ordered the info material mentioned because I was curious what my government specifically advises to do in different scenarios they deem plausible and they range from 'simple' house fires to large-scale contamination of air by biological or nuclear material.