THE WORD “HACK” CAN
HAVE MANY MEANINGS IN
OUR MODERN LANGUAGE.
You might hack your way through a thicket—intellectual or vegetative.
You might cry out “I’ve been hacked!” when someone gains unauthorized
access to your computer and makes unwelcome changes to your online
property. Or you might perform a “life hack,” accomplishing a task with
an unexpected tool or technique. As you’ve already guessed, it’s the latter
meaning we have used as the inspiration for this book.
A survival hack, as we're defining it, is a creative way to accomplish an
emergency task or self-reliance chore by turning the things you have into the
things you need. And if there ever was an arena when hacks really mattered,
it is the realm of survival and self-reliance.
In this book, we’ll look at three settings where these improvisations
would be particularly valuable. First, we’ll take a look at hacks you’d use in
some all-too-common disaster scenarios. Natural disasters are the most likely
threats that the average person would face, and these events frequently cut
off supplies, causing us to fend for ourselves for a time. Our second arena is
the wilderness. Getting lost or hurt in the great outdoors can plunge a person
into a wilderness survival scenario, forcing you to make what you need from
the land. And for the final section of this manual, anything goes! From daily
dilemmas to rare and bizarre situations, this section will prepare you for
events outside the scope of wilderness survival and disaster preparedness (in
fact, we’ve nicknamed it the Mad Max chapter). So, embrace that hallmark of
humanity—your natural creativity—and enjoy this book!