What makes a person a survival expert?

J

JimMLa

Joined
Mar 27, 2007
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179
Besides using common sense, what makes a person a survival expert in your eyes? Military training, survival courses by experts?

Every news channel I watched covering the MN bridge has interviewed a "survival expert". I googled some with no results. Others had a resume of being an "adventurer". What makes these people experts?
 
I hesitate to respond because I know you are looking for an serious answer. Nonetheless, a survival expert is someone who is still alive:) and the older they are the more of an expert they are:D.
 
Practice, practice, practice makes you an expert.

More seriously, you become a survival expert when a person is willing to call you one or you are confident to call yourself one. There are plenty of quasi experts out there that are simply labeled as experts. They may or may not have the credentials which can be a formal survival education, practical real world experience (ex. a professional trapper is an authentic expert in tracking if he/she is successful. Also, on the internet, you can be anything from the comfort of your armchair. I take so-called survival experts with a grain of salt. More humility is my flavor.
 
Probably there is not just one best expert for every scenario.

The military folk are probably the best ones to consult for escape and evasion techniques in a foreign country, for instance.

An effective expert regarding wilderness survival in your area is more likely to be somebody with:
-Humility (willing to learn and aware of what he/she doesn't know).
-Experience with living, hiking, hunting, fishing, hiking, caving, climbing etc in the area concerned...and a knowledge of weather, flora and fauna in the area.
-The realization that knowledge and ideas are more important than the brand of equipment carried.
-A good understanding of the people that he/she is trying to impart knowledge to.
-A good listener and communicator.
-A positive attitude.

I think that we ourselves might become our best survival consultants if we think ahead and ask all the right questions. Of course it is wise to consult others, but in the end we have to follow our own instincts.
 
An expert should not simply be somebody who is proficient at a given act. It should be somebody who has underwent a systematic study of the topic at hand. The expert should be familiar with different facets of the topic - e.g. historical considerations, different modes, theory and practices. This study should be beyond the direct experiences of the individual. An expert is able formulate weight of evidence conclusions based on the sum of information available and to provide evidence based critiques of current or alternative practices by placing them in context of theory and mechanisms of action.

I don't agree that being able to survive a set of conditions makes a person an expert in survivalism. Nor do I agree that an adventurer or trapper necessarily makes a survival expert. Somebody who wrote a book on survival and demonstrated that they appropriately researched the topic may be considered a survival expert. Then again, I'm an academic - an expert in a pretty narrow field many people wouldn't really care about. It took me 12 years of work to get that status, 2 thesis' and 40 journal publications.

Journalists rarely worry about proofing the credentials of so-called expert. They are usually more concerned with finding somebody to quote a line that is consistent with the angle of the story they are telling. My experience with journalists is that they are more concerned about telling a catchy stories than getting their facts straight. They will misquote you and then turn around and say that they were just editing for the soundbite. They also follow this moronic model where they try to balance opinion between competing factions even when competing factions don't really exist for the story they are telling. Okay - maybe you can tell that I've had a rough go with more than one journalist in my time.

A real tragedy about the bridge. I'm no expert in this area - and it sounds like the folks being quoted aren't either ;)
 
Hey Guys...

I'd have to agree with kgd...

However what makes any expert and expert...

There are some people in the survival biz that have no business in it, and they are considered "experts".. Alot of it to me is smoke, mirrors and hype...

ttyle

Eric
O/ST
 
I knew an amazing survival expert. He drank himself to death.
 
Hey Robert..

If you don't mind me asking, who was that ??

ttyle

Eric
O/ST
 
Umm, it's a news TV show. A survival expert makes their broadcast more credible to the folks watching. So, whether the expert is, or isn't a survival expert, really isn't important.

However, what makes one is important and for me, the prime here is that the expert must be able to perform, by teaching others to perform the necessary skills and tasks, with and without tools, where and when they are needed and hopefully under some sort of stressful conditions. They should be able to show others in real life situations, whether created as a teaching tool, or as everyday existence in a certain environment, how to best overcome the obstacles that they will most certainly meet in different environments and situations. They should also be able to give them insight into what to watch for, in order to stay out of trouble.
 
"Survival" is an extremely broad field. It could cover anything that could go wrong in any location on earth. I don't think anyone can rise to the level of experise across the board in this subject. One of my college professors said that if your education hasn't led you to a place of humility then you haven't had an educaton. I think the study of survival demands that of people and any expert worth his salt is going to recognize his own limits and defer to someone more knowlegable on whatever topic when he knows he's out of his depth.

A great deal of survival information will apply broadly across the globe because the human being is basically the same no matter where he is, our basic needs don't change much. Other information is intensely local and only comes about through a deep relationship with a particular place or climate zone.

A true expert will be able to readily adapt what he knows to where he goes. He will also be a serious student of the way people do things where he is. I think humility is a huge factor in that, nothing makes a person less teachable than arrogance. People who have truly gained mastery in whatever subject know they don't have to defend their ego, they are prone to be good teachers, patient with others, and continual learners themselves. When I meet people like that I think, now this is someone I can learn alot from. Mac
 
I agree longbow50. Teaching requires you consider many perspectives apart from your direct experiences. A good teacher has to adapt to the point of view of their students. Another way of saying this is that a teacher has to be able to scale their knowledge to the base or foundation of principles as well as converse at the state of the art.

Pict - point taken. A good test of this is if the expert is more interested in the parameters surrounding the question and learning about the experience/question posed than demonstrating their knowledge of the area.
 
They've been anointed by Bear Grylls, of course.

Personally though, I liked XMP's answer:

XMP said:
Nonetheless, a survival expert is someone who is still alive:) and the older they are the more of an expert they are:D.
Click to expand...

To it, I would add that said person has substantial time alone in the bush.
 
Self promotion. thats it thats all.

There is no Degree in it or official peer reviews testing claimed skill sets.

That said there are those who claim to be and actually are so its a mixed bag buyer beware.

Skam
 
pict said:
"Survival" is an extremely broad field. It could cover anything that could go wrong in any location on earth. I don't think anyone can rise to the level of experise across the board in this subject. One of my college professors said that if your education hasn't led you to a place of humility then you haven't had an educaton. I think the study of survival demands that of people and any expert worth his salt is going to recognize his own limits and defer to someone more knowlegable on whatever topic when he knows he's out of his depth.

A great deal of survival information will apply broadly across the globe because the human being is basically the same no matter where he is, our basic needs don't change much. Other information is intensely local and only comes about through a deep relationship with a particular place or climate zone.

A true expert will be able to readily adapt what he knows to where he goes. He will also be a serious student of the way people do things where he is. I think humility is a huge factor in that, nothing makes a person less teachable than arrogance. People who have truly gained mastery in whatever subject know they don't have to defend their ego, they are prone to be good teachers, patient with others, and continual learners themselves. When I meet people like that I think, now this is someone I can learn alot from. Mac
Click to expand...

I think Pict has summed it up as well as it can be.

Merriam-Webster online: "one with the special skill or knowledge representing mastery of a particular subject". As Pict has noted above, survival is a very broad field and falls outside of the "particular subject" designation of M-W, so I guess what I'm trying to say is, there's really no such thing, IMHO. If you say something like a survival expert in the mountains of Brazil, perhaps brother pict would fill the bill, or a survival expert in New Zealand's south island, perhaps coote (as well as expert of the '$100 commercial bonk' that he mentioned in another post :rolleyes:) This would be more realistic.

I just took a quick trip back to the opening question: "Besides using common sense, what makes a person a survival expert in your eyes?" so I guess my answer would be anybody that knows more than me, and their numbers are legion. :)

Doc
 
IMO an "expert" is someone who reads books...a "survivor" is someone that is GAME enough to still be here after some bad shit went down. period.
So, take your choice, we are all going to anyhow....I would trust alot of the guys on here to watch my back if I was hurt or injured in the woods, BUT, they wouldn't have to if I wasnt injured, I think I can take care of myself. An expert is someone you admire...I look up to others here and abroad for thier knowledge, thats why I read here. I don't think anyone would look up to me..so I'm not an expert...but I know that if I was lost in the woods, I wouldn't freak out...I might die some day, but I wouldn't be freaking out when I did.
The people on TV are there to tell you that the bridges in your town are going to fall down tomorrow...this way thier ratings go up...sucks, but thats the way of the world...bad news sells.
I personally look at anything I happen to see on TV, when passing by my girlfriend on the way to grab a cold one, and make some remark about her stupid shows...as stupid...but hey, most people that know me call me a jerk. I think that no matter what we all might think, or what scientific title we would love to give them...we might have already met an expert, someone that isn't on TV...just the guy next door...he might have lived through some tough times, designed the next pizza thats always hot, or was a guide in Alaska that walked out, after a Godzilla attack. We never know...until we are there.
 
many years ago i read something a guy name william (cant remember the last name) said
" An expert is someone that knows more and more about less and less"
I remember it cause it tells me to keep my mind open and listen to what everyone else
has to say.

Sasha
 
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