Rule 21Stalling is an effective backup strategy

In the Wilderness

You sometimes have to retreat from combat when you know your life will be in great danger if you stay. Stalling is an extremely effective strategy to shut down wild predators. For instance, when a pack of wolves or a tiger is hunting you down, your best bet is to climb a tree since it’s obvious that those animals are not able to climb trees. They’ll sooner or later leave the scene. But just make sure that you cling to the tree like your life depends on it (because your life actually depends on it).

In School

At school, there are multiple occasions when stalling becomes useful. To begin with, when the teacher asks you about your homework and you’ve already used up all your excuses for the week, you can stall by searching your bag for the homework (even though it isn’t inside) and tell your teacher that they can come back later. It sometimes works, but not always. Another situation is when the teacher is about to hand out extra homework. You might want to ask them useless questions about the topic until the bell rings. I’m sure that your classmates will be grateful for you saving them from more homework.