I experienced a strange intersection of life and national news media yesterday. I was reading MSNBC.com as part of my daily news grazing when I spotted a photo on the front page and thought to myself, “I know that guy!” Indeed, as I read the article it became clear that it was indeed the man I remembered.

His name is Rob. I worked with him for some time during the height of the dot-com era. He was one of the sharpest database guys I’ve ever worked with and responsible — in part — for the most grueling and comprehensive job interview I’ve ever faced. I did get the job though!

The article wasn’t about the IT industry or databases though, but rather a growing population of people who are preparing for the collapse of society. The idea of “survivalism” has been with us for a long time, it was especially popular during the Cold War. The MSNBC article talks about a new breed of people though, who are taking practical steps in the hopes of surviving a future where modern conveniences cease to exist.

Sound silly?  Maybe not. It’s a philosophy I myself embrace, though not to the depth of Rob and his peers. You don’t have to look very hard to find recent examples where even simple disaster preparedness plans would have saved lives. New Orleans is probably the most graphic example in recent years of the kind of breakdown the infrastructure can suffer from predictable, natural causes.

Even here in Seattle we have nearly annual incidences of multi-day power outages caused by our frequent wind storms. And nearly every year there are numerous deaths suffered by people who are simply unprepared in the most minimal ways to survive when electricity stops flowing, let alone a complete collapse of our national infrastructure.

It’s a topic my son and I discuss frequently, though we normally cast it in terms of the coming zombie apocolypse. Strangely enough, preparations for zombies will also see you through other disasters, be they power outages, earthquakes, volcanic erruptions or city-wide riots… all of which Seattle has experienced in my life time.

I’m not suggesting that you need to build a bunker or prepare a retreat in the mountains but even a little preparedness goes a long way. Something to think about…

A few resources on this subject:

• http://www.ready.gov/
• http://www.fema.gov/areyouready/
• http://www.72hours.org/
• http://www.prepare.org/

The End Of The World As We Know It by Riddlin’ Kids