Skills and Stuff

Gear Without Knowledge Is Clutter

Here's something I've learned the hard way:

Stuff without skills is just expensive clutter.

If you have a beautiful water filter you've never used. If you have fancy fire starters you've never tested. If you have a first aid kit you've never opened.

That's not prepping. That's shopping.

The Balance

You need both stuff AND skills. But skills matter MORE.

Here's why: stuff breaks, runs out, gets lost, gets stolen. Skills? Those stay with you forever.

If you know how to purify water, you can do it with a filter, with boiling, with UV, with tablets. If you only own a filter? You're stuck when it breaks.

If you know how to cook from scratch, you can work with whatever food you have. If you only know how to heat up Mountain House packets? You're limited. But it means you have a place to start...

Skills to Learn

Start with these:

• Water purification (multiple methods)
• Basic first aid (take a class! Docs and Vets, you have this down in your sleep — you get the ADVANCED course and special system. Coming later! For the rest of us, we should know the fundamentals.)
• Fire starting (practice before you need it)
• Basic cooking (from actual ingredients, not just packets)
• Navigation (can you read a map without GPS?)

The Practice Rule

Every piece of gear you buy? USE IT before you need it.

New water filter? Filter some water this weekend. New camp stove? Cook dinner with the kids in the backyard. They'll have a blast — and you'll actually know how to use it when it matters.