Monday, June 23, 2008 . 9:56 PM

Well the school has finally reopened its gates to us again. Yesterday was still holiday and today the hectic life is going to start. Guess i will be dealing with it alright. Really going to study harder this term to get a result that I'm satisfied with.

Anyway, I saw a very good article in the Chinese version of Reader's Digest. It's July 2006 if I'm not wrong. Basically it was writing on how to survive in almost any group like PW groups, other project groups etc etc. It was based on the popular TV reality show, the Survivor series.

Here's the main outline that I copied down.

The unwelcome will be kicked out 1st in a group.

-Make sure that you don't get injured in any means including making yourself at a disadvantage
before any activities; it will be worse when you need others to take care of you.

-Don't treat others hostilely as if they are mere things. You've got to value every group member equally.
-If you keep nagging at people all day long and slander others in the group, you get kicked out really fast.
-If you don't bond with your group members and don't interact with them, you are very likely to be send home.

If you have no exceptional abilities but you DO interact with others FULLY, there might still be a chance that you get in some interesting ideas.

You can't survive with only abilities.

-Although you are very good in a particular area, you just sit around for stuffs to be done without contributing anything, you are as useless as a piece of junk.
-Never treat yourself as the hero/head of the group just because you are good in something. NEVER look down on others in the group no matter how good you are.

Interestingly, the one that does nothing but just sweet-talks all day will survive for a very long time.
For a real leader, you really have to have exceptional abilities and be able to lead the team, adjust the team in different situations so that your team will secure the victory.

Manipulating strategically and forming cliques

When you know a few people are targeting you off the group or trying to push you into the emo corner, it's time for you to form cliques to adjust to the upcoming threat. If you know and you don't react to it, you will only be played around like how they want you to be.

You got to be sensitive in a group, be alert of possible traps and dangers. You will also have to prepare for the hidden threats you see and come up with effective measures. Act before your enemy does.

Well this last point is really a good reminder to me. Here it goes: ALWAYS stay within a group, either you support the idea/people or disprove the idea/people. Being neutral will make you end up belonging no where and getting attacked by both sides.

So all in all, these people will get kicked out in a survival contest one by one
1, People with minimal abilities
2, People who can't deal with hardships and troubles
3, People who like to lie to others
4, People who don't interact with others (no one knows what he is thinking about thus no trust for co-operation)

That's short version of the passage in a crappy translation. Hope it helps in the years to come in our lives because i really learnt a lot from this.

May God bless you, peace <3