Everybody Needs a Tap Code

This week, PBS aired a phenom­e­nal series on human emotion and social inter­ac­tion called “This Emotional Life.” I was partic­u­larly struck by a segment on human resilience in which a Vietnam veteran — Bob Shumaker, a POW for 8 years — shared his amazing story.

Key to surviv­ing his ordeal was commu­ni­cat­ing with his fellow captives using a clever “tap code” they created. Having inter­viewed Bob, researcher Dennis Charney, Professor of Psychiatry at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, points to social support as being pivotal to human resilience:

“Everybody needs a tap code. Everybody needs a way to commu­ni­cate with other people to get through tough times.”

This is precisely why we devel­oped the OODAkit — a tap code for the 21^st century.