Fongu gave the best answer so far- he said listen to your "radar". My earlier answer of, "...my brain is my weapon of choice," was a poor one. Why? Because it was a terribly vague.
First: Humans are terrible at risk managment. What's worse is we think we know how to accurately manage risk, but we don't. Unless you are a savant, you are likely severely limited in evaluating risk. It takes a lot of thought, education and experience to accurately evaluate risk.
Risk management evaluates two things concurrently: 1) How likely is a bad thing to happen? and 2) How much harm will come of it? Getting hit in the head by a 1 inch meteorite is 100% lethal; however, the odds are unlikely you will be struck, so very few of us go around wearing a ballistic combat helmet to prevent being injured by a meteorite. Getting hit in the head by a bug will cause little harm; however the odds you will be struck is 100%. The risk of harm is so low that we think nothing of it.
The odds of being injured or killed when driving a car is fairly high, yet we have little fear of the risk when we should be more concerned. Most of us are more scared of a wild animal attack; that risk is ridiculously low but many of us overreact to the actual risk. There are things we should be afraid of but aren't, and there are things we shouldn't be afraid of but are.
Second: A person by the name of Gavin DeBecker wrote a book called "The Gift of Fear". It is one of the most life-changing books I've ever read. In it he details specific behaviors predatory people display, how to easily identify those behaviors, and how to avoid them. He and his colleagues have written several books over the years detailing and giving specific answers on how to assess and appropriately deal with various threats. In other words, risk management of potentially lethal threats -real threats- not the made up ones in our minds.
If you are sincere about wanting to be safer when metal detecting, I highly recommend the books listed on his website.
First: Humans are terrible at risk managment. What's worse is we think we know how to accurately manage risk, but we don't. Unless you are a savant, you are likely severely limited in evaluating risk. It takes a lot of thought, education and experience to accurately evaluate risk.
Risk management evaluates two things concurrently: 1) How likely is a bad thing to happen? and 2) How much harm will come of it? Getting hit in the head by a 1 inch meteorite is 100% lethal; however, the odds are unlikely you will be struck, so very few of us go around wearing a ballistic combat helmet to prevent being injured by a meteorite. Getting hit in the head by a bug will cause little harm; however the odds you will be struck is 100%. The risk of harm is so low that we think nothing of it.
The odds of being injured or killed when driving a car is fairly high, yet we have little fear of the risk when we should be more concerned. Most of us are more scared of a wild animal attack; that risk is ridiculously low but many of us overreact to the actual risk. There are things we should be afraid of but aren't, and there are things we shouldn't be afraid of but are.
Second: A person by the name of Gavin DeBecker wrote a book called "The Gift of Fear". It is one of the most life-changing books I've ever read. In it he details specific behaviors predatory people display, how to easily identify those behaviors, and how to avoid them. He and his colleagues have written several books over the years detailing and giving specific answers on how to assess and appropriately deal with various threats. In other words, risk management of potentially lethal threats -real threats- not the made up ones in our minds.
If you are sincere about wanting to be safer when metal detecting, I highly recommend the books listed on his website.
