What contingencies should I be planning for in day to day life? HPMOR was big on the whole “be prepared” theme, and while I encounter very few dark wizards and ominous prophecies in my life, it still seems like a good lesson to take to heart. I’d bet there’s some low-hanging fruit that I’m missing out on in terms of preparedness. Any suggestions? They don’t have to be big things—people always seem to jump to emergencies when talking about being prepared, which I think is both good and bad. Obviously certain emergencies are common enough that the average person is likely to face one at some point in their life, and being prepared for it can have a very high payoff in that case. But there’s also a failure mode that people fall into of focusing only on preparing for sexy-but-extremely-low-probability events (I recall a reddit thread that discussed how to survive in case an airplane that you’re on breaks up, which...struck me as not the best use of one’s planning time). So I’d be just as interested in mundane, everyday tips.
(Note: my motivation for this is almost exclusively “I want to look like a genius in front of my friends when some contingency I planned for comes to pass”, which is maybe not the best motivation for doing this kind of thing. But when I find myself with a dumb-sounding motive for doing something I rationally endorse anyway, I try to take advantage of the motive, dumb-sounding or not.)
What contingencies should I be planning for in day to day life?
Those related to what you do and where you go in day to day life. The only people who need to worry about a micrometeorite punching a hole in the spaceship get training for it already.
These might include such things as: locking yourself out of your house, having an auto breakdown, being confronted by a mugger, being in an unfamiliar building when the fire alarm goes off, coming upon the scene of a serious accident, where to go and how to get there when widespread flooding is imminent, being stranded in a foreign country without funds or a ticket out, when to see a doctor when a mole you’ve always had starts growing, getting old, and so on.
Do you have insurance for anything? The list of what it covers is a list of contingencies. If it’s worth spending money for the monetary compensation, it’s worth thinking about how to deal with it if it happens, and how to stop it happening.
I am by no means an expert, but here are a couple of options that come to mind. I came up with most of these by thinking “what kind of emergency are you reasonably likely to run into at some point, and what can you do to mitigate them?”
Learn some measure of first aid, or at least the Heimlich maneuver and CPR.
Have an emergency kit at home, and have a plan for dealing with natural disasters (fire, storms, etc). If you live with anyone, make sure that everyone is on the same page about this.
On the financial side, have an emergency fund. This might not impress your friends, but given how likely financial emergencies (e.g. unexpectedly losing a job) are relative to other emergencies, this is a good thing to plan for nonetheless. I think the standard advice is to have something on the order 3-6 months of income tucked away for a rainy day.
3-6 months? People don’t go on piling up savings indefinitely? How else do you retire? I mean… there is state pension in the country I live in but I would not count it not going bust in 30 years so I always assumed I will have what I save and then maybe the state pays a bonus.
The 3-6 months is in a liquid savings account. Beyond that, you want your money in investments that will earn interest. They will be more volatile, so aren’t advisable as an emergency fund. They can also be harder to access.
You are of course entirely correct in saying that this is far too little to retire on. However, it is possible to save without being able to liquidate said saving; for example by paying down debts. The Emergency Fund advice is that you should make a point to have enough liquid savings tucked away to tide you over in a financial emergency before you direct your discretionary income anywhere else.
Ah… I see. We keep most of our savings liquid. Safe i.e. government guaranteed investments at the biggest banks here are like 0.5% a year (the Kapitalsparbuch thing here in Austria), sot I don’t give a damn. And I would rather not gamble on the stock exchange. If I would see inflation I would care, but then I would also see more decent interest rates.
I think its a minimum of 3-6 months in a place where you can access it on short notice. of course the most common advice I see around LW, and other “If I knew this when I was 20 years younger...” type posts is—its never too early to be saving money up and building wealth.
Split it into “commutes by car” and “commutes by public transport”. I know when I used to own a car I was ridiculously prepared, even having a shovel in the trunk. Now with the subway, basically nothing—I have a whole city full of services to help me or anyone else in need. Or five hundred people on the subway train with various skills and items.
I don’t believe I’ve ever seen them in regular over-the-counter emergency kits, but making sure you have a tourniquet within (and know it’s use) reach can’t hurt. A pocket mask is great, too. An AED would probably be amazing if you have over a thousand US (or it’s equivalent) dollars to spend. Emergency treatments in general change pretty drastically every few years, so it would be an ongoing investment.
Have a good, working knowledge of what diabetes looks like, and various cardiac issues. While it may never happen to you, recognizing it and calling for help might save someone.
The training, naturally, is probably the hardest part to acquire, but I don’t think anyone who maximizes learning efficiency would have any trouble. The main issue is finding the right teachers.
While I could come up with a curriculum (I teach very basic survival/emergency treatment regularly) and put it in a nice app or something, the nature of those treatments are constantly changing, and I wouldn’t in good conscience disseminate that information without knowing that students would be able to stay up to date.
Until then, an EMT course can’t hurt. If you have stable employment and decent hours, you might be able to take advantage of night classes.
I suppose the problem with that statement was ‘good’ and ‘working’. It is far easier to simply memorize the symptoms and general knowledge, see what it looks like on assorted Youtube videos and browsing Figure 1, which is free and accessible to the public, than it is to acquire experience with it. This is the cheapest route, and getting that initial knowledge uses the same study techniques you would use to learn, say, microeconomics.
You don’t need too much (EMT and CPR) to be certified to become an Emergency Room Technician, solely to volunteer (as opposed to looking for employment) at an emergency room on weekends. The job mostly involves taking vitals, cleaning, and being ready to assist medical staff with menial labor. It’s probably the cheapest way to do it that I can think of. Close observation of what the doctors and nurses are doing would yield enough experience to recognize frequent issues surrounding diabetic and cardiac emergencies. EMT and CPR would incur the most costs, besides time on weekends.
Keep a Seat belt cutter and window breaker in your glove compartment.
I would like to see some data on whether they are useful, that is, how likely are you to find yourself in a situation where having them in your glove compartment will be important.
(Note: my motivation for this is almost exclusively “I want to look like a genius in front of my friends when some contingency I planned for comes to pass”, which is maybe not the best motivation for doing this kind of thing. But when I find myself with a dumb-sounding motive for doing something I rationally endorse anyway, I try to take advantage of the motive, dumb-sounding or not.)
Often being prepared simply means that nobody notices anything being at odds. Don’t optimize for flashy solutions.
What to do when things get lost 1) Your credit card 2) Your mobile phone 3) Your keys
What do you do when things you rely on break: 1) Your computer 2) Your car
Who to call? 1) Police imprisons you and charge you for a criminal act 2) You have a medical emergency (also set up a ICE contact list entry on your smart phone)
Identify local forms of natural disaster and what you intend to do in the circumstances. (bush-fires, earthquakes, typhoons, volcanoes, snowstorm, bear-pocalypse… whatever is normal in your area)
Identify what you plan to do in case of a power failure (owning some candles or something) depending on how bad the failure is and how long it lasts… I suggest owning a external battery block for phone charging—give extra peace of mind that you won’t run out of battery. (something like 15000mah should be plenty for most people)
(I have never suffered a technical failure but) preparing for a hard-drive failure, monthly backups, cloud storage… how will you manage if you suddenly are unable to earn money for 3-6 months? have savings; have a plan; programs like pocketbook; YouNeedABudget, calculate your burn-rate. Unexpected spends i.e. bills. Plumbing problems sometimes just happen in old houses—know what to do (how to change a washer etc.), Know how to open an S-bend if something is dropped down a pipe.
(basic first aid training was mentioned elsewhere but I wanted to add that we don’t train the heimlich manoeuvre in Australia)
know how to use a fire-extinguisher (you just have to read the instructions on the front; but maybe read them before you are in desperate need to know them)
qualified to drive larger vehicles can help in life.
knowledge of the law in some areas.
knowing how to cook delicious things on short notice (1-2 recipes that you can whip up really quick).
Do martial arts training until you get the falling more or less right. While this might be helpful against muggers the main benefit is the reduced probability of injury in various unfortunate situation.
Do martial arts training until you get the falling more or less right. While this might be helpful against muggers the main benefit is the reduced probability of injury in various unfortunate situation.
As someone with ~3 years of aikido experience, I second this.
I have a small multitool on my keychain and have for several years; it most often comes in handy as a bottle opener but the small pliers, knife, screwdriver, and wire stripper have all been used.
I have the entire road system of North America as of three months ago downloaded as about five gigabytes of data on my phone (yay micro SD cards) which comes in handy when driving through rural mountains.
A charged car battery exists in the trunk of my car for jumpstarting (and also for running my big computerized telescope out in the field, which is how I ensure it is kept charged, because it is dual use).
Mostly for hobby purposes but also for contingencies, I have built a portable solar-powered lithium-iron-phosphate battery pack that charges from sunlight at 25 watts, can store 200 watt-hours, and can discharge upwards of 100 watts at either 12 volts DC or 120 volts AC.
Take people you spend time with to first aid, heimlich, and CPR classes. You will need their help if you are the one choking or unable to breathe.
Build up enough stamina and physical fitness to run at both a sprint and for several minutes straight. Running away from a fight can be a very good strategy for not getting harmed.
Read the “Influence: Science and Practice” chapter that discusses Social Proof. I think it was chapter 4. The suggestions involved help avoid the bystander effect where a person in need is left alone and unassisted by a group of onlookers. The chapter deals with a few examples of effectively communicating and prompting someone to help you in an emergency situation. This is especially necessary in an urban environment.
Is there anything you keep expecting yourself to remember, but you don’t remember it? If so, make an extra effort to remember it, or make a note, or whatever might help.
Thanks for the great suggestions everyone. To follow up, here’s what I did as a result of this thread:
-Put batteries back in my smoke detector
-Backed up all of my data (hadn’t done this for many months)
-Got a small swiss army knife and put it on my keychain (already been useful)
-Looked at a few fire extinguishers to make sure I knew how to use them
-Put some useful things in my messenger bag (kleenex, pencil and paper) - I’ll probably try to keep adding things to my bag as I think of them, since I almost always have it with me
All of the car-related suggestions seemed like good ones, but weren’t applicable since I don’t own a car. Some other suggestions were good but required more time than I was willing to put in right now, or weren’t applicable for other reasons.
Things that are unsexy but I can actually verify as having been useful more than once:
In wallet, folded up tissue. For sudden attack of sniffles (especially on public transport), small cuts, emergency toilet paper.
In bag I carry every day: small pack of tissues, multitool, tiny torch, ibuprofin, pad and pencil, USB charging cable for phone, plastic spork, wet wipe thing from KFC (why do they always shovel multiples of those things in with my order ?).
Americancentric, but: I would suggest that if you have a phone, programming the numbers for the local police, a good urgent care clinic in your area (a wiser choice than the ER, when possible), and your garage (especially if you don’t have AAA). 911 is an important tool, but it is not always the best tool for the job, and the cost of updating your address book is essentially zero.
Oh, and perhaps the New York Public Library’s virtual reference service (depending on your long-distance plan).
(Dunno how they are sold in your country) a bottle of nitroglycerine or similar drugs, the instructions to which you know by heart, similar to Harry’s preparations? Considering that the probability of you encountering a stranger who has an emergency should be higher than the p of only you having it, unless there is a common cause. In case there is a common cause, well. Bring a gun?.. (At least it is small.) A notebook seems also a useful thing to havehave, with a pencil attached.
What contingencies should I be planning for in day to day life? HPMOR was big on the whole “be prepared” theme, and while I encounter very few dark wizards and ominous prophecies in my life, it still seems like a good lesson to take to heart. I’d bet there’s some low-hanging fruit that I’m missing out on in terms of preparedness. Any suggestions? They don’t have to be big things—people always seem to jump to emergencies when talking about being prepared, which I think is both good and bad. Obviously certain emergencies are common enough that the average person is likely to face one at some point in their life, and being prepared for it can have a very high payoff in that case. But there’s also a failure mode that people fall into of focusing only on preparing for sexy-but-extremely-low-probability events (I recall a reddit thread that discussed how to survive in case an airplane that you’re on breaks up, which...struck me as not the best use of one’s planning time). So I’d be just as interested in mundane, everyday tips.
(Note: my motivation for this is almost exclusively “I want to look like a genius in front of my friends when some contingency I planned for comes to pass”, which is maybe not the best motivation for doing this kind of thing. But when I find myself with a dumb-sounding motive for doing something I rationally endorse anyway, I try to take advantage of the motive, dumb-sounding or not.)
Those related to what you do and where you go in day to day life. The only people who need to worry about a micrometeorite punching a hole in the spaceship get training for it already.
These might include such things as: locking yourself out of your house, having an auto breakdown, being confronted by a mugger, being in an unfamiliar building when the fire alarm goes off, coming upon the scene of a serious accident, where to go and how to get there when widespread flooding is imminent, being stranded in a foreign country without funds or a ticket out, when to see a doctor when a mole you’ve always had starts growing, getting old, and so on.
Do you have insurance for anything? The list of what it covers is a list of contingencies. If it’s worth spending money for the monetary compensation, it’s worth thinking about how to deal with it if it happens, and how to stop it happening.
I am by no means an expert, but here are a couple of options that come to mind. I came up with most of these by thinking “what kind of emergency are you reasonably likely to run into at some point, and what can you do to mitigate them?”
Learn some measure of first aid, or at least the Heimlich maneuver and CPR.
Keep a Seat belt cutter and window breaker in your glove compartment. And on the subject, there are a bunch of other things that you may want to keep in your car as well.
Have an emergency kit at home, and have a plan for dealing with natural disasters (fire, storms, etc). If you live with anyone, make sure that everyone is on the same page about this.
On the financial side, have an emergency fund. This might not impress your friends, but given how likely financial emergencies (e.g. unexpectedly losing a job) are relative to other emergencies, this is a good thing to plan for nonetheless. I think the standard advice is to have something on the order 3-6 months of income tucked away for a rainy day.
3-6 months? People don’t go on piling up savings indefinitely? How else do you retire? I mean… there is state pension in the country I live in but I would not count it not going bust in 30 years so I always assumed I will have what I save and then maybe the state pays a bonus.
The 3-6 months is in a liquid savings account. Beyond that, you want your money in investments that will earn interest. They will be more volatile, so aren’t advisable as an emergency fund. They can also be harder to access.
You are of course entirely correct in saying that this is far too little to retire on. However, it is possible to save without being able to liquidate said saving; for example by paying down debts. The Emergency Fund advice is that you should make a point to have enough liquid savings tucked away to tide you over in a financial emergency before you direct your discretionary income anywhere else.
Ah… I see. We keep most of our savings liquid. Safe i.e. government guaranteed investments at the biggest banks here are like 0.5% a year (the Kapitalsparbuch thing here in Austria), sot I don’t give a damn. And I would rather not gamble on the stock exchange. If I would see inflation I would care, but then I would also see more decent interest rates.
I think its a minimum of 3-6 months in a place where you can access it on short notice. of course the most common advice I see around LW, and other “If I knew this when I was 20 years younger...” type posts is—its never too early to be saving money up and building wealth.
Split it into “commutes by car” and “commutes by public transport”. I know when I used to own a car I was ridiculously prepared, even having a shovel in the trunk. Now with the subway, basically nothing—I have a whole city full of services to help me or anyone else in need. Or five hundred people on the subway train with various skills and items.
Very good ideas. Could be improved upon thus:
seat belt and window cutter for your key ring—always present, in the bus, train, other peoples cars.
Practice emergency procedures. To be actually able to perform them under stress.
Always carry a compact emergency kit with band-aid and one or two pads. Possibly a rescue blanket in your backpack.
Always have some cash handy (may depend on your country, municipality).
Quickclot:http://www.amazon.com/QuikClot-Advanced-Clotting-Sponge-1-75/dp/B00HJTH22E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1433129845&sr=8-1&keywords=quickclot
(ref = slate star)
I don’t believe I’ve ever seen them in regular over-the-counter emergency kits, but making sure you have a tourniquet within (and know it’s use) reach can’t hurt. A pocket mask is great, too. An AED would probably be amazing if you have over a thousand US (or it’s equivalent) dollars to spend. Emergency treatments in general change pretty drastically every few years, so it would be an ongoing investment.
Have a good, working knowledge of what diabetes looks like, and various cardiac issues. While it may never happen to you, recognizing it and calling for help might save someone.
The training, naturally, is probably the hardest part to acquire, but I don’t think anyone who maximizes learning efficiency would have any trouble. The main issue is finding the right teachers.
While I could come up with a curriculum (I teach very basic survival/emergency treatment regularly) and put it in a nice app or something, the nature of those treatments are constantly changing, and I wouldn’t in good conscience disseminate that information without knowing that students would be able to stay up to date.
Until then, an EMT course can’t hurt. If you have stable employment and decent hours, you might be able to take advantage of night classes.
Knowing where the AEDs are in your workplace is a good idea, too!
How do you expect people who are not doctors or nurses to acquire that?
I suppose the problem with that statement was ‘good’ and ‘working’. It is far easier to simply memorize the symptoms and general knowledge, see what it looks like on assorted Youtube videos and browsing Figure 1, which is free and accessible to the public, than it is to acquire experience with it. This is the cheapest route, and getting that initial knowledge uses the same study techniques you would use to learn, say, microeconomics.
You don’t need too much (EMT and CPR) to be certified to become an Emergency Room Technician, solely to volunteer (as opposed to looking for employment) at an emergency room on weekends. The job mostly involves taking vitals, cleaning, and being ready to assist medical staff with menial labor. It’s probably the cheapest way to do it that I can think of. Close observation of what the doctors and nurses are doing would yield enough experience to recognize frequent issues surrounding diabetic and cardiac emergencies. EMT and CPR would incur the most costs, besides time on weekends.
I would like to see some data on whether they are useful, that is, how likely are you to find yourself in a situation where having them in your glove compartment will be important.
How do you determine whether a seat belt cutter/window breaker is a good one? Should you test it on an old rag or something?
I’m afraid I don’t know. You might get better luck making this question a top level post.
Often being prepared simply means that nobody notices anything being at odds. Don’t optimize for flashy solutions.
Fair.
What to do when things get lost
1) Your credit card
2) Your mobile phone
3) Your keys
What do you do when things you rely on break:
1) Your computer
2) Your car
Who to call?
1) Police imprisons you and charge you for a criminal act
2) You have a medical emergency (also set up a ICE contact list entry on your smart phone)
Identify local forms of natural disaster and what you intend to do in the circumstances. (bush-fires, earthquakes, typhoons, volcanoes, snowstorm, bear-pocalypse… whatever is normal in your area)
Identify what you plan to do in case of a power failure (owning some candles or something) depending on how bad the failure is and how long it lasts… I suggest owning a external battery block for phone charging—give extra peace of mind that you won’t run out of battery. (something like 15000mah should be plenty for most people)
(I have never suffered a technical failure but) preparing for a hard-drive failure, monthly backups, cloud storage… how will you manage if you suddenly are unable to earn money for 3-6 months? have savings; have a plan; programs like pocketbook; YouNeedABudget, calculate your burn-rate. Unexpected spends i.e. bills. Plumbing problems sometimes just happen in old houses—know what to do (how to change a washer etc.), Know how to open an S-bend if something is dropped down a pipe.
(basic first aid training was mentioned elsewhere but I wanted to add that we don’t train the heimlich manoeuvre in Australia)
know how to use a fire-extinguisher (you just have to read the instructions on the front; but maybe read them before you are in desperate need to know them)
qualified to drive larger vehicles can help in life.
knowledge of the law in some areas.
knowing how to cook delicious things on short notice (1-2 recipes that you can whip up really quick).
Install a smoke detector
Do martial arts training until you get the falling more or less right. While this might be helpful against muggers the main benefit is the reduced probability of injury in various unfortunate situation.
As someone with ~3 years of aikido experience, I second this.
I have a small multitool on my keychain and have for several years; it most often comes in handy as a bottle opener but the small pliers, knife, screwdriver, and wire stripper have all been used.
I have the entire road system of North America as of three months ago downloaded as about five gigabytes of data on my phone (yay micro SD cards) which comes in handy when driving through rural mountains.
A charged car battery exists in the trunk of my car for jumpstarting (and also for running my big computerized telescope out in the field, which is how I ensure it is kept charged, because it is dual use).
Mostly for hobby purposes but also for contingencies, I have built a portable solar-powered lithium-iron-phosphate battery pack that charges from sunlight at 25 watts, can store 200 watt-hours, and can discharge upwards of 100 watts at either 12 volts DC or 120 volts AC.
+1 to offline maps before travelling. An offline map nearly killed me and saved my life as well. Would suggest having it.
Take people you spend time with to first aid, heimlich, and CPR classes. You will need their help if you are the one choking or unable to breathe.
Build up enough stamina and physical fitness to run at both a sprint and for several minutes straight. Running away from a fight can be a very good strategy for not getting harmed.
Read the “Influence: Science and Practice” chapter that discusses Social Proof. I think it was chapter 4. The suggestions involved help avoid the bystander effect where a person in need is left alone and unassisted by a group of onlookers. The chapter deals with a few examples of effectively communicating and prompting someone to help you in an emergency situation. This is especially necessary in an urban environment.
Is there anything you keep expecting yourself to remember, but you don’t remember it? If so, make an extra effort to remember it, or make a note, or whatever might help.
Thanks for the great suggestions everyone. To follow up, here’s what I did as a result of this thread:
-Put batteries back in my smoke detector
-Backed up all of my data (hadn’t done this for many months)
-Got a small swiss army knife and put it on my keychain (already been useful)
-Looked at a few fire extinguishers to make sure I knew how to use them
-Put some useful things in my messenger bag (kleenex, pencil and paper) - I’ll probably try to keep adding things to my bag as I think of them, since I almost always have it with me
All of the car-related suggestions seemed like good ones, but weren’t applicable since I don’t own a car. Some other suggestions were good but required more time than I was willing to put in right now, or weren’t applicable for other reasons.
Things that are unsexy but I can actually verify as having been useful more than once:
In wallet, folded up tissue. For sudden attack of sniffles (especially on public transport), small cuts, emergency toilet paper.
In bag I carry every day: small pack of tissues, multitool, tiny torch, ibuprofin, pad and pencil, USB charging cable for phone, plastic spork, wet wipe thing from KFC (why do they always shovel multiples of those things in with my order ?).
Americancentric, but: I would suggest that if you have a phone, programming the numbers for the local police, a good urgent care clinic in your area (a wiser choice than the ER, when possible), and your garage (especially if you don’t have AAA). 911 is an important tool, but it is not always the best tool for the job, and the cost of updating your address book is essentially zero.
Oh, and perhaps the New York Public Library’s virtual reference service (depending on your long-distance plan).
(Dunno how they are sold in your country) a bottle of nitroglycerine or similar drugs, the instructions to which you know by heart, similar to Harry’s preparations? Considering that the probability of you encountering a stranger who has an emergency should be higher than the p of only you having it, unless there is a common cause. In case there is a common cause, well. Bring a gun?.. (At least it is small.) A notebook seems also a useful thing to havehave, with a pencil attached.
This needs to be qualified by lots of clauses like local law, necessary practice… But maybe a smaller alternative: pepper spray?