At the recycling center that I use, I noticed a backpacking magazine sticking up from the box. It was a special issue on survival, and looked interesting, so I took it home to read. Most of the articles in the magazine were written by one guy who has devoted his life to living on the edge. He had become an expert on survival by continually putting himself in harm’s way, and by living to tell about it. It was true that he had learned many useful tricks, and was smart about survival; but I shook my head in disbelief that he had been as dumb as to put himself in so many situations where his very survival had been in doubt.