The thread about Bear Grylls' reality survival show reminded me of this. I think this show revealed quite a few truths.

To cut a long story short: 20 people (10m, 10f I think) were placed in remote part of Bulgaria with some very basic supplies and basically required to live like a paleolithic band of hunter-gatherers. Around 2 weeks from the end there were 5 left: a mother, her two daughters, male 1 and male 2.

Every day male 1 (who's name was Paul) would go out setting traps and attempting to hunt, and invariably come back with nothing. This would inevitably lead to the rest of the tribe, including male 2 bitching about how he was wasting his time. Meanwhile, they rationed out the rest of their food (at one point when they were really struggling the producers gave them some nuts, berries etc.) to get them through the last two weeks of the experiment. Paul knew the importance of obtaining some big game for protein and kept trying.

Not long before the end, one of the daughters accused Paul of touching her inappropriately in the communal bed. I'm not suggesting this did or didn't happen, obviously we'll never know. But with her word against his, everybody wanted him to go so he left. Just over a week later, the remaining four made it to the end of the experiment. They celebrated and had a nice feel-good moment.

After this experiment, the host and survival expert made an important point: while rationing berries may be enough to get you through another week, if this was a real tribe 12000 years ago with no 'end date' they would have died out without proper protein. While Paul may have frequently failed, each day he was learning another valuable lesson on what DOESN'T work. In other words, if they'd needed to stay another couple of weeks they would have been totally screwed.

So what do I take from this? There is no point 'rationing berries' in real life. Sure you might survive for a bit, but you will never truly thrive. Go out hunting every day (in whatever your goals are) and try to make that big kill, even if it takes 1000 days of failing. People WILL bitch and moan and criticize, but it doesn't matter. Keep doing what YOU know is right for success.