10 ESSENTIALS FOR BEGINNING BACKPACKERS

“The beginning is always the hardest” — everyone has heard that and although most people agree that it’s true, the majority of us give up before even starting. There are so many reasons for doing this. Don’t forget what you hear so often — “humans are rational”. Well, that’s not really true. What’s true is that we always try to provide some rationale behind our actions believing that it fully justifies them; however, some 40 years ago the famous psychologists Kahneman and Tversky discovered that humans systematically make choices that defy clear logic because of something they called “cognitive biases”. Even experienced researchers are prone to the same cognitive biases when they rely on intuitive judgments in more intricate and less transparent problems. Apparently, we assume that we are rational but clearly, our thoughts, desires, and actions often aren’t.

Someone would now say “Yes, you might be correct, but that has nothing to do with hiking and beginning backpackers”. Well, actually it has a lot to do with beginning backpackers because they lack the experience of veteran hikers and are prone to the same mistakes typical for so many novice backpackers (needless to say, even some seasoned hikers underestimate dangers and make careless mistakes). However, with some simple research, reading, and asking most costly mistakes can be easily avoided without having to take instinctive decisions when you get yourself in trouble…

You can read the whole story at: https://www.camotrek.com/blogs/news/10-essentials-for-beginning-backpackers