Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Survivors’ Club

Just finished a book called Survivors Club about the “secrets and science that could save your life.” Filled with stories and studies about why some people survive accidents and others don’t. It refers to rules about how to survive various types of accidents, such as the 1-10-1 rule if you fall into very cold water:

“If you think you have just minutes to live, that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy…You have 1 minute to get your breathing under control, 10 minutes of the ability to move your muscles, and 1 hour before you lose consciousness.”

And the theory of 10-80-10:

“10 percent of us will handle a crisis in a relatively calm manner…around 80 percent will be stunned and bewildered with impaired reasoning, lethargy, tunnel vision; in short we’ll turn into statues…and 10 percent will do the wrong things.”

The author has a website where you can take a short test about what type of survivor you are. (If you buy his book, you get a special secret code so you can take a much longer test.) I took the short test and achieved an unimaginable score of 112% out of 100%. I think I was the world champion survivor. (But I might have cheated.)

The part about people freezing into inaction, relates to climbing, I think. We have “limited attentional resources” and suffer from “brainlock.” “…with your heart pounding and stress hormones pumping, it’s no surprise your mind can freeze up for a few seconds.”

According to the Air Force survival course the book mentions, there is a “Rule of 3” for survival. You cannot survive:

3 seconds without spirit and hope

3 minutes without air

3 hours without shelter in extreme conditions

3 days without water

3 weeks without food

3 months without companionship

1 comment:

Lisa said...

This may come as a surprise but I took the quiz and I am the "thinker" survivor type. Keeping company with the likes of Bell Gates and Steve Jobs. :)