Learning to street fight was a good exercise in this for me. Not so much “how would you use this to kill someone” as training the subconscious process of identifying a handy object and a combat-specific use for it very quickly, faster than you’d be able to reason it out. What’s interesting is that it didn’t take much to get the ball rolling—mentor simply had to demonstrate the concept with a handful of loose change. It’s a bit weird when I realize people don’t relate to objects in their environment that way, now—but I’ve noticed that my casual willingness to look a little weird when solving problems seems to touch off a lot of lightbulbs for other people.
This reminds me… I have read in a book, I believe it was “The Gift of Fear”, that a good way to increase your safety is trying to think like a criminal. For example if you want to assault a person, which place would you choose? You need a hidden place (so that nobody else catches you in the act) near a widely open area (so that you can check that your victim is alone, and no other people are near). You want a place where people walk rarely (to have an opportunity to catch someone alone), but near a place where people often go (so that you don’t have to wait for a victim forever). For example near a supermarket, but in a direction where people usually don’t go; a short dark path near an open space or near a long street. Spend some time looking around for a place you would rationally choose to assault people. And then you’ll learn to recognize the places you should rather avoid.
nodnod I had a bit of a problem recently because one of the classes I’m taking can only be reached, when using public transit, through corridors that all read to me like nearly perfect places to opportunistically assault or mug someone, and I’m in an at-risk population (this occurs in a neighborhood where several members of that population have been murdered there in the last two years, and a high number of assaults take place there as well). Conversely, in Sydney I was mostly fine in neighborhoods locals considered rough and necessary to avoid—it was just abundantly clear that the beaten path wouldn’t be trouble, no matter how many scary stories I’d heard about the place.
Learning to street fight was a good exercise in this for me. Not so much “how would you use this to kill someone” as training the subconscious process of identifying a handy object and a combat-specific use for it very quickly, faster than you’d be able to reason it out. What’s interesting is that it didn’t take much to get the ball rolling—mentor simply had to demonstrate the concept with a handful of loose change. It’s a bit weird when I realize people don’t relate to objects in their environment that way, now—but I’ve noticed that my casual willingness to look a little weird when solving problems seems to touch off a lot of lightbulbs for other people.
This reminds me… I have read in a book, I believe it was “The Gift of Fear”, that a good way to increase your safety is trying to think like a criminal. For example if you want to assault a person, which place would you choose? You need a hidden place (so that nobody else catches you in the act) near a widely open area (so that you can check that your victim is alone, and no other people are near). You want a place where people walk rarely (to have an opportunity to catch someone alone), but near a place where people often go (so that you don’t have to wait for a victim forever). For example near a supermarket, but in a direction where people usually don’t go; a short dark path near an open space or near a long street. Spend some time looking around for a place you would rationally choose to assault people. And then you’ll learn to recognize the places you should rather avoid.
nodnod I had a bit of a problem recently because one of the classes I’m taking can only be reached, when using public transit, through corridors that all read to me like nearly perfect places to opportunistically assault or mug someone, and I’m in an at-risk population (this occurs in a neighborhood where several members of that population have been murdered there in the last two years, and a high number of assaults take place there as well). Conversely, in Sydney I was mostly fine in neighborhoods locals considered rough and necessary to avoid—it was just abundantly clear that the beaten path wouldn’t be trouble, no matter how many scary stories I’d heard about the place.