What will you choose to survive?

Woooooooo it's been ages since I wrote last!I've been busy lately and had no time to write...but I'm doing pretty good. Thank you!


At the end of last month I attended a seminar for job hunting held at uni. Currently I am studying for a civil exam which I am going to take next summer, but I'm going to try some private companies as well.I decided to attend this seminar for the purpose of getting some information about how to start job hunting.
The seminar consisted not only of lectures by some staffs who have been informally promised employment but also of an interactive program;This time I experienced a group discussion, which is often taken as a way of job interviews by most of the large companies in Japan. This time we discussed a quite interesting topic, so here I'm going to introduce what we talked about.


Question:
Suppose your boat had been washed up on shore of an unknown inhabited island. You have nothing with you right now. If you're given just 3 things from the list below, what would you choose? Pick three!
Situation; There's no dangerous animal on the island, but there's only a tree and drinkable water.


1. a cell phone
2. a knife
3. a throwaway lighter
4. a white, large cloth
5. a rope
6. an illustrated guidebook to plants
7. a smoke pot
8. one of your friends
9. a blanket
10. some recreation stuff like cards


First off, we discarded a cell-phone, a smoke pot and the recreation stuff from the list, because we thought they were all the most unreliable and useless things to survive on an inhabited island.Then we chose a knife. The main reason is that we can use a knife in many ways and we thought we wouldn't be able to find any other substitutable stuff on the island.One of my American friends once told me that some of American people always carry a knife in their bags, not only for self-defense but as a "tool". He told me that, for example, when they need to cut a piece of paper or a rope, a knife would become a very useful tool.
Secondly,we chose a white, large cloth. There was no information about how large the cloth was, but anyway, we thought this also would be useful in many ways. We might be able to make a small tent with the cloth, or also we can use it as a blanket(at this point we removed the "blanket" from the choice) Also, if we wave it like a flag, we can ask for help to get out of the island.
At this point, a lighter, a rope,an illustrated guidebook to plants and a friend were still remaining in the list.First we removed a rope.Of course sometimes it can be useful, but we didn't get any ideas of situations when a rope is needed just for survival. And even if we became in need of it, we might be able to make it with some plants like ivy or something like that on the island instead.Next,a plants guidebook was turned down(personally I think this one should have been dropped from the list first but somehow it remained till the last stage).
A lighter, or a friend. On the very last stage,it took us quite a long time to decide either of them. Especially regarding a friend, our opinions were completely divided because, as you  probably guess, it has both aspects of a very important advantage and a fatal disadvantage.Of course having one of your closest friends with you on an unknown inhabited island will benefit you a lot;You'll feel more secure and never need to feel lonely.Also you might be able to find and share the best ideas to survive which you would have never thought up if without your friend. 
However, on the other hand,to live with your friend can be a serious burden when you try to survive on the island; Foods.If there were plenty of things we can eat on the island,we might not need to worry about this problem, but if not? What if there were only a few edible stuff on the island? With your friend, you have to reduce what you get to eat by half.Even if there was drinkable water, still, something that can be a precondition to survive would be simply to have enough foods with you.Also, even if the friend is your closest friend,you might not always get along with the friend; sometimes you might fall out with him/her, especially in such a tense situation like when you have a matter of life and death.
Thus, after all, we selected a lighter, for the reason of having less risk compared to the case of a friend.


A knife, a large white cloth, and a lighter. This was the conclusion that we reached in the end. We talked it over for the 20 minutes, which became a very precious experience for me because recently I don't often have a chance to talk over something except my major, law, with my friends in my daily life.But through this discussion, I learned again that sharing ideas and opinions with friends is very important.


Right,now it's your turn. If you think about this question, what would you choose?