I've been reading a book that talks a lot about how to do various things that we take for granted today. Not just obvious things like growing your own food and livestock, but also pretty important stuff like filtering water, or making charcoal, saltpeter (an ingredient in black powder) or bleach.

If a situation arose, how many people would know how to dig a privy in a proper spot (downhill from any water source) and how to maintain it? This would have been basic knowledge as recently as 120 years ago.

I am impressed by the sheer number of things I am ignorant about. I mean, if I didn't have Google, electricity, and Home Depot down the street, I'd literally be living lower than a proverbial caveman. Even those in the so-called "Dark Ages" had a lot of down-to-earth skills that men today have lost (natural remedies, for example).

How can we claim we're so advanced, if individually we're ridiculously helpless?

If a man's only job/skill was to do a certain 30 second task (all day) on a factory assembly line, wouldn't it be true that the man is objectively useless? If that particular factory closed, the man would literally be unemployable.

People don't even know the basics of what plants you can eat, nevermind any advanced knowledge of plant life. And how many people (who eat meat twice a day on average) know how to hunt, catch, and/or process an animal? Heck, some people don't even know how to COOK outside of a microwave, especially if the power goes out. (Some might be OK as long as their grill's propane tank holds out).

And don't even mention preserving food. Most people would be completely lost without their Fridge. How many people know the real shelf life of common foods? Which expiration dates are a mere suggestion, and which are more strict?

Did you know that most antibiotics can be used after the expiration date, but that a particular one (tetracycline) becomes toxic?

Have you ever heard of a rocket stove? Do you know the basic concept, so you could jury-rig one out of cinder blocks?

There are a million other things like that. As I learn each thing, I feel like I'm learning it about 30 years later than I should have.

 :dancing-banana:
This is why girls should go to camp!  Basic skills are not just for men and boys!  How many women out there know how to build a fire and cook edible food? Any women know how to weave baskets or make clay pots? Spin thread and knit, crochet, weave it into cloth?  Make asewing needle, crochet hook, knitting needles, a simple loom?  Grow flax or cotton?  Make animal skins into usable leather?   How about knowledge of plants for food and remedies?  

It takes money or resources to learn many of these things. There seems to be a belief that back to basic skills are cheap or free but it does cost.

I can buy a bag of 12 socks for the price of two skeins of sock yarn to make 2.

For canning you need supplies, and produce that you can afford to waste.

For fishing you usually need a car to get to a place to fish, a fee, a fishing license, fishing rods and bait, a cooler, lunch while you are out.

I think one of the best skills is to see what you need to live short-term without electricity and running water.  It's more likely people will face that. Do you have enough blankets to keep warm in winter, bug spray in summer, are the screens on your doors OK to keep bugs out, potable water for drinking and toliet flushing, food that is edible without cooking.