Two is one. One is none.

I’m just an EDC guy who intermittently uses his flashlights at home and work. No being out hiking for days. No emergency or rescue work.

But, there have been several times over the years when having two flashlights proved more than just readiness.

A few quick examples . . .

Work not providing the tools I needed to do my job. Customer comes in post testing to perform physical inspection. Neither the customer nor PM have an inspection light. Hand my flashlight to the PM and use my second light to continue my work.

Working second shift. Thunderstorm knocks out electricity for the whole industrial park. We all “safely assemble” in the hall. Noticed a coworker terrified of the situation. Gave her my flashlight. She clutched her elbows tightly to her stomach and shown the beam up at her own face. The guard had no flashlight, comes to the assembled group looking for one. I agree to do a door check walk with her using my second flashlight.

Installed an arcade machine in a dark basement. Owner insists on plugging the unpowered cabinet wires in himself. Out comes my flashlight. Owner had trouble. I use my flashlight to help him while his brother used my spare to give us general lighting.

I bet some of you have more interesting and / or harrowing stories.

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I do always 1 on keychain, second small light if theres more than 10% probability of needing it, preference for a right angle and or magnetic tail cap.

I don’t actually understand how people “EDC” all their crap, my pockets are heavy with a wallet phone and house keys…

I’m convinced EDC pocket dumps of guns, multiple knives, phone, fat wallet, two flashlights, etc etc are all staged and people don’t actually have that all in their pockets everyday…

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Yeah, short of cargo pants, I run out of room and comfort beyond one knife, a set of keys with Fenix E01, small knife, TS10, wallet (probably too fat in left rear pants pocket) and sometimes phone in chest pocket.

But I do almost always have two lights on me.

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well, here is my story…

keychain and “hat light” (in the bill of a baseball cap).
fishing before dawn when my BIL got a hook in his arm.
not deep, but buried the barb. he held my keychain
light and i turned on the hat light for the extraction.
no stitches needed. his tetanus was up-to-date.
(outdoor activities need a tetanus booster)

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My EDC, which I have in my pockets any time I leave the house includes:

  • bifold wallet
  • 18650 flashlight
  • flipper-style pocket knife
  • home/car keys
  • cell phone

Sometimes I leave the wallet if just going for a walk, other times I add my wireless earbuds case.

The same items always go in the same pockets so I always know where to find things. I don’t do much for redundancy like some people though. There is a tiny knife on my keychain just in case. (Spyderco Bug)

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That’s why I carry my Bat Utility Murse™. All my shiite is in there vs stuffed into 40 nonexistent pockets on my pantaloons.

Took my car to the dealership for something, was gonna grubble around looking for something while waiting… forgot my light at home! Swapped pantaloons for shorts or the other way around, so yeah, didn’t do the 40-pocket transfer as usual.

But I did have my other light in its holster on my bag, though. Problem solved.

I have a container in the car with everything the average person would need.

Its too much of a hassle to carry all that crap around.

I EDC two lights.

Emisar D4K dual channel W1/519A, and Weltool W3 Pro Tac. Flood, throw, and *lots* of throw. Have a configurable light with advanced features, high CRI or medium distance cool white, plus an LEP that’s both something to throw beams around for fun, and a defensive light for when I’m walking.

I EDC three lights.
A Convoy M21F and two keychain flashlights.
The keychain flashlights are just backups, so I rarely use them. :grin:

If two is one and one is none then two is also none. Right?
Cuz 2=1 and 1=0
So 2=0 therefore 0=1=2

And this extends into infinity since 3=2+1=0 and 4=2+2=0
Then 0=1=2=3=4=5…= ∞

What does this mean?
All the numbers have become equal to each other and to zero. None of it means anything anymore. All the calculations, all the measurements, all the data, all the codes, all the currencies, all the identities, all the passwords, all the secrets, all the numbers have vanished. They become nothing.

The consequences are devastating. The economy collapses, communication systems fail, transportation networks crash, the social systems fracture, the cultural systems erode, the political systems implode. Rioting, looting, the world goes to purge.

Without numbers there’s no order, no logic, no reason, no meaning, no value, no identity, no difference, no diversity, no complexity, no creativity, no progress, no civilization, no humanity. Only chaos, confusion, conflict, crisis, catastrophe, collapse.

Look what you did

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I’ve always hated the saying “two is one and one is none” for reasons along this line.

Two is none, and three is two, so three is none. Better carry at least 4 knives and 4 flashlights.

In response to the question: I carry one flashlight and one knife on my person. My phone flashlight can be a backup in a pinch. I have another knife and another flashlight that stay in the car so they should never be too far away if I really need them.

I don’t have enough pocket space for multiples of everything, and I can’t pull off a batman utility belt at my day job. I think just one of each will do.

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It seems that some people may not understand where this saying comes from and that it is not a math equation.
None IS NOT equal to zero. Google it.
If your employer limits how many pockets you can have or what you can have on your belt then they are not relying on you to have or carry critical pieces of equipment to do your job. So they don’t care if you show up to work without a flashlight or without a knife. With some jobs or environments you need to be prepared. Based on past polls here it appears to me that most members only EDC a keychain flashlight. I’m not referring to what’s in the bag that stays in the car or what goes in your jacket pocket if you happen to go out and walk the dog at night.
I carry two knives.
One 2+ inch blade that I do most cutting tasks with every day and a larger 3+ inch blade for some other tasks.
I carry 2 flashlights.
Both 18650 flat tops. One at 4 inches that throws pretty damn good and one right angle flood utility light.
Could I get by most days with one knife and one flashlight? Yup.

The question is what happens if one is dropped, lost, stolen, or just breaks or goes mental on its own.

If the odds of that happening are 1 in 1000, then the odds of that happening to two is 1 in 1000000.

Point being, how critical is it if you lose 1 light (remote, but possible) or losing 2 (lightning-strike odds).

If you’re camping, caving, doing something stoopit where your life depends on having a light, then what risk you’re comfortable with determines how much backup you need/want.

So that saying covers one failure. Ie, 2 is 1, 1 is 0.

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What if the event that takes out the first flashlight also takes out the second flashlight? Like if both get stolen at the same time. Then the saying becomes- “don’t pull all your eggs in one basket” :laughing:

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And “birds of a feather”…

Seems like everyone in this topic has forgotten the last part of the saying “… And 3 is a spare”.

All maths can go back to defcon 5 for now.

So if two is one, and one is none, how much do you have with five?

Thats a merch table.

Too many…

Everything in between infinity and negative infinity