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by vidarh 1212 days ago
It's a risk that is so low that if I were to invest time in reducing the top risks in my life, it'd be far outside the top 10. Put another way: The odds of me finding myself somewhere where I can't easily find someone to drive me somewhere is near zero.

Note that this is how I evaluate my risk. I absolutely accept this will be an issue for people who live in places where getting transport might be a problem. If that's a problem here, civilisation has ended.

1 comments

Public transit strikes and system breakdowns happen occasionally, nothing to do with the end of civilization. Not being able to drive really limits your options, especially if you want to travel to remote locations for business or leisure. Knowing how it drive is just a basic life skill for any adult. It's something everyone should know how to do like being able to cook a meal or rewire an electrical outlet or shoot a gun or splint a broken limb. You might not need those skills every day but you shouldn't be completely dependent on others. Having some generalist skills gives you freedom and independence, and opens up a lot of options.
Public transit strikes doesn't take out the dozens of private hire car firms, minicab companies and app driven providers serving where I live.

So, yeah, it'd take pretty much the end of civilisation for it to be an issue. If I had no money, or lived somewhere rural, the considerations would be different.

And not being able to drive has never been a factor for me in deciding where I want to go.

If I had any desire to regularly go to anywhere so remote that I couldn't justify hiring someone to drive me there, I'd learn to drive, but in 47 years that has happened exactly zero times.

I live in a city in a functioning society, not in a rural location or third world country, and my interests don't include anything that will see me end up in the middle of nowhere. That this might not be true for you does not mean it isn't true for me.

> drive or cook a meal or rewire an electrical outlet or shoot a gun or splint a broken limb

None of those except cooking are in any way "basic life skills". Least of all shooting a gun.

It's sad if you really believe that. Too many people in the tech industry have led such sheltered lives that they lack perspective on what happens in the real world. At a bare minimum every adult should know how to unload and render safe a firearm.
I wouldn't want to live in the kind of uncivilized, unsafe society where people are so scared that they consider that a necessary skill. Thankfully I don't.
99.999% of people on this planet have lived fulfilling lives and died at peace in their bed without doing any of that.