But you see that is the very thing Duncan thought of in retrospect. It's easy for any of us to say we would have done this or that, but until you are actually placed in a like situation you have no idea what you would actually do.
Well, he did a right thing at the moment. His instinctive decision was completely understandable, and fortunately he read the situation correctly: The guy was obviously nuts, but not murderously nuts.
It could, however, have been different. The guy could have killed him. Crazy people should not be underestimated. Or the guy could have kneecapped him or dislocated his shoulder, sent him into PT or even surgery. Even losing a tooth wouldn't be worthwhile over a TED badge, for all the reasons which Davidson now understands in retrospect.
And there is something you can do about these things: instincts can be trained. You can rehearse situations, mentally or (better yet) physically, with actors standing in for muggers. And you can helpfully tell others so that they can rehearse and prepare, as Davidson has done. Thanks to him, I have a whole new retinue of tips I might follow:
Don't wear my conference badge outside the conference.
Don't store stuff that I can't afford to lose with my conference badge if that badge cost me thousands of dollars.
Travel in groups when possible, stay in the light, move quickly when approached, yadda yadda yadda. Pack as light as possible. Don't wear shoes that prevent me from running at a decent speed.
Get around to this project: Pack up a decoy wallet to carry around in the city, containing $20, some kind of old expired ID, and a bunch of expired credit cards. When mugged, drop that wallet and run. If that doesn't work, hand over the real wallet and run.
Don't carry anything that you're not willing to hand over in a mugging. Which is to say: Program yourself to understand that it's not worth fighting over your things. You may have to struggle (or not -- you kind of have to play it by ear) to avoid being raped or kidnapped or shot or stabbed, but when someone demands a thing the proper default response is to drop it and run. Credit cards can be replaced. Cash can be replaced, even $1000 worth of cash. Expensive cameras can be replaced. Even passports can be replaced. Your body cannot be replaced. And street fighting is not as easy as it looks in the movies.
A life of fear is not worth being lived. I don't think all this overhead of "preparing" for those unlikely scenarios is worth it, especially since being in the situation it's likely you'll forget all your "preparation" and you'll screw up anyway.
Also a very good point. I don't live a life of fear. I just gaily lose possessions from time to time.
On my second trip to Europe I had my $400 digicam pickpocketed in a touristy Paris metro station [1]. That made me sad, so I decided to stop carrying around $400 digicams in touristy places. On my third trip to Europe I carried a $10 disposable film camera in a day bag that I had gotten for free as a donation gift. The bag was stolen (from behind the desk at a museum, where I had checked it) on the second day of my trip. And I laughed a lot (the most difficult part of the whole thing was convincing the despondent museum staff that I wasn't badly hurt by the loss and didn't want to accept a cash settlement from an obscure but interesting museum) and I had a lot of fun shopping for a new disposable camera and a nice new cheap bag which I use to this day.
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[1] Montmartre. Home of some fine pickpocket talent -- back then, at any rate.
As always, hindsight is 20/20.