In order to survive when society absolutely implodes, which it eventually will, there are a number of steps you must take. There are also a number of “mistakes” that “every” prepper knows you should never make. But chances are these aren't really mistakes at all. Take a look at what we mean below.

1. Do have a very big bug out bag
The inaccurate but common belief is that a big bug out bag will be overpacked and impossible to carry. In reality, that logic just enforces my belief that the one giving the “smallest possible bag” advice has never done anything big outdoors. There are five main reasons you want a big bug out bag.
1) You can pack more.
2) Big packs carry heavy loads much better than smaller packs.
3) You can use a large pack as a sleeping bag or bivy sack.
4) You can always carry air. Nobody is going to make you fill all available space in your pack.
5) If you leave home with a stuffed small pack, you cannot add to your load as you go. So unless you are bugging out on a commercial airline flight, you can forget about carry-on size limitations and do this right.
2. Do pack everything you think you might need
You cannot dump out what you don’t have. Imagine an EMP caused you to hit the “go button” on your bug out plan. A month before, however, you cut down the size of your bug out bag assuming that the 30 mile jaunt to your bug out location (BOL) would be easier with a minimalist carry.
But just as you head out the door, your neighbor fires up his EMP-proof truck and offers you a ride in the right direction. No time to pack more, so guess what, you just made a colossal mistake in packing and you haven’t even left yet!
3. Ignore the weight of your bug out bag
If you are constantly mumbling something about pounds being pain, then you will have to make big decisions without waiting for all the information you could gather. Instead of cutting corners ahead of time, prepare to ditch weight as needed. Water is a great ballast choice and can easily be substituted with air (see point #1 above). By the way, that old adage about three days without water and three weeks without food is nonsense in a bug out. You might survive those numbers adrift in a raft then rushed to a hospital, but certainly not walking around and doing survival work.
4. Do buy the very best you can of everything
Buy your tools and equipment based on need, quality and performance instead of price. If you really need to pinch pennies, go with used equipment.Since a real bug out has little margin for error, the fewer points of failure you you bring with you the better. The problem is that most folks have not pushed equipment to the point of failure so they don’t know just how dangerous a cascade of failures can be in a survival situation
5. Do skip all the military/tactical/police advice
Well, maybe not skip the advice, but certainly put it in perspective. Sure a select fire weapon is effective, but unlike M/T/P you won’t have a supply chain feeding your machine gun, or an ambulance parked just behind the yellow tape. Instead, take the advice of those whose activities are closer to the bug out.
6. Don’t skip all the military/tactical/police advice
In fact, embrace all the tactical aspects you can even if you look like a mall ninja’s mall ninja. Just like the overstuffed bug out bag, the tactical look can come and go as needed, but will never be available unless with you at the start.
The same is true for your tactical clothing. Wear your operator threads under loose-fitting street clothes, and when needed just jump into the nearest phone booth and morph back into Superman.
7. One is plenty
The funny thing about redundancy is that it is usually practiced on the easiest and funnest targets like knives, fire starter, and back up iron sightsguns. I’ll take one good knife, one good flashlight, and one good gun over two or more lesser of any of the above. If you are worried about losing your tool and needing another one, then I suggest being more careful.
8. Don’t plan on bartering
Would you trade your food for a box of .303 British cartridges? How about some pre-1964 quarters for your fish antibiotics? Or some small yellow fragments that may or may not be gold for your extra warm clothes? Not this guy. I’ll engage in barter as needed with what I have at that time. Most likely it will be for skills over objects, and especially not for those things that require intrinsic and agreed upon value like gold dust.
9. Carry cash in large denominations.
Traditional prepper lore is to carry small bills such as fives, tens and twenties.
Instead I’m betting that everything will be $100, or if not my $100 bill will beat your pair of twenties when fighting over that last case of canned soup at the gas station. Expect price gouging by packing enough financial firepower to overcome the competition and also the hesitation of the sellers. Let the zeros do the talking.

10. Don’t rely on Paracord for much of anything
Handy yes. But only one solution of many you will need. Paracord is by far the most popular prepper noun that doesn’t involve nitrocellulose or carbon steel. But as far as cordage goes, it’s main benefits are that it’s cheap and colorful. Paracord is the duct tape of rope. A catch-all solution with no specific job. But today it seems that paracord is the prepper’s dream material and is used with reckless abandon as if its presence alone will ensure survival. Learn your cordage and knots. Then use the proper rope for the job.

11. Do eat jerky
One piece of faux-wisdom I hear often is to skip certain foods during the bug out, and beef jerky seems to be singled out more often than not. The folksy wisdom seems to have your best interest at heart, but in reality it misses the point. Yes, jerky is salty so you will need to drink water. But you need to drink water anyway and at a level commensurate with the endurance sport you are now playing. If you avoid jerky because you are delinquent in your hydration needs, the problem is with you, not the jerky.
12. Do rely on technology
Of course technology can fail. I’m not stupid. But technology can also give you a massive strategic advantage in terms of speed and precision. A compass and a GPS are two completely different items that have a slight bit of overlap. Yet I know plenty of folks who swear the GPS is a disaster waiting to happen while the compass they carry but don’t know how to use will save their life. All a compass does is point north. It might keep you walking in a straight line, but navigationally speaking, you’re screwed unless you have the terrain memorized in which case you don’t really need the compass.
Bic lighters are technology as are gas stoves, binoculars, red dot sights, laser rangefinders, night vision, and semi-automatic pistols. And I intend to use all of them to their fullest potential. Sure a failure of my lighter and gun could have me rubbing two sticks together and whittling an atlatl, but, as I like to say, I’ll burn that bridge when I come to it.

Really, the advice doesn't get much better than this. One of the most pertinent bits of advice to pull from this is the fact that you should have a large bug out bag. Sure, most prepping “experts” will say that this will just make you think you have to stuff it with junk you don't need, but if you have some semblance of self-control that won't be a problem.

Plus if you overstuff it you can just drop what you don't need on the side of the road or trade it with someone else for something you think you may need more.

For more excellent advice on how not to follow other prepping advice, you can read more on this important topic on SHTF Blog.