John's review
Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why by Laurence Gonzales
Life can be cruel and relentless. The energy of the world does not pause for us. Sometimes things happen outside of our control, and other times our seemingly harmless decisions create conditions where we find ourselves suddenly in precarious situations. Regardless of cause, it is my belief that all of us will find ourselves in a situation where survival skills are important in order to manage our situation and rise above the circumstances. With this backdrop I sought wisdom from those who have survived extreme situations.
This book helped me in that regard. I was surprised by the academic approach Gonzalez took to survival - Tao Te Ching, neuroscience, psychology (stress, risktaking, fear, panic), complexity theory, and stages of dying, and so on. The second half of the book is what I expected the entire book to be: incredibly moving real-life survival stories. I think Gonzalez also does a good job packaging common characteristics of these survivors into key learnings - as w...more
This book helped me in that regard. I was surprised by the academic approach Gonzalez took to survival - Tao Te Ching, neuroscience, psychology (stress, risktaking, fear, panic), complexity theory, and stages of dying, and so on. The second half of the book is what I expected the entire book to be: incredibly moving real-life survival stories. I think Gonzalez also does a good job packaging common characteristics of these survivors into key learnings - as w...more
