Create an On The Go Knowledge Pantry

By Zack Pack

Having a diverse set of skills is perhaps one of the most important ways to prepare for an unpredictable future. But which skills are the most useful to learn? How can you predict what you’ll need to know?

These were the questions that haunted me when I started taking prepping seriously.

I love learning how to do new things and picking up new skills. And the internet has been my best teacher. It seems like I’m far from alone too if you consider about a quarter of Youtube’s 800+ million hosted videos are dedicated to DIYers like me.

However, with all the supply-chain disruptions, outages, and threats to infrastructure encountered since the pandemic, I’ve personally become a little fearful that I might not be able to get online to teach myself something crucial when it might matter most.

My solution has been to stock up on how-to resources in a “knowledge pantry” that I could access offline.

My “pantry” is just a low-cost tablet with a solar charger (solar chargers go for around $20 online) that I can fit in a bugout bag and take with me. However, I’ve loaded it with tons of downloaded videos, how-to guides, maps, and eBooks which can be referenced without access to the internet – everything I’d need to teach myself a new skill at the time I’d need it. What’s extra nice about having it on a tablet is that it’s affordable (something I’ve been given out as giftsRead More