Zombies are coming, make sure you get weapons and… information!

Maggie: Give us what you have.
Georgie: I’m afraid I can’t do that. I come bearing knowledge to trade… essential knowledge for the future, primarily in my head, and I prefer to keep that where it is.
Maggie: You’re trading knowledge…
Georgie: That’s what I have. I’ve made the same offer before… Fill the crates, get the knowledge… simple as that. It’s not a trick, just a fair trade. I promise you.

Georgie is very confident about her offer, so much she doesn’t tremble with weapons pointed at her.

This is a conversation between Maggie, leader of a community known as Hilltop, and Georgie, a misterious well dressed woman. They rendez-vous in a crossroad, away from walkers and alive bad-ass guys.
I saw The Walking Dead first episode without expectations, but the enigmatic and colapsed world after a zombie outbreak really got my attention and since then I watch season after season never missing an episode. I specially appreciate how the living ones deal with their new Human condition.
Several years later, this episode brought the fans a whole new vision. Everyone thought that to survive what they really needed was armory, survival skills, strategic intelligence, negotiation skills, luck and courage. But Georgie thinks otherwise, she has knowledge to trade! Who would say that even after a zombie apocalypse information would be so important?
In previous seasons I found that organized communities recognize the need to use ancient techniques in order to prosper. In a land without electricity, water network or supermarkets, is critical to produce and attend your own needs.
There were several characters that somehow carried a clearer perception on how to handle these new circumstances. Dr. Edwin Jenner worked at the Center for Disease Control and explained how the new virus infects the human brain. Hershel, Maggie’s father, was an old farmer that portrayed wisdom, he’s the one who opened Rick Grimes eyes to the importance of growing crops. Milton Mamet was the governor’s scientist who conducted several experiments to understand how dead people turn into zombies. And more recently, Eugene Porter, a fake-scientist that could not survive alone, shows on every episode that he can add great value due to his knowledge and creative solutions, so much that Negan accepted him in his group after discovering he’s a bullet maker!
Of course, in the short term you have to scavenge, kill zombies and deal with malevolent people. But in the long term you must have a plan, make choices, establish priorities and set teams working on it, because developing a sustainable community is how you ensure a future for mankind. Even when things are falling apart, useful information plays a major role on creating a solid ground against adversity.
By the end of the episode, after exceeding initial suspicions, Georgie delivers something that Maggie clearly was not expecting, her facial expression was a mix of surprise and acknoledgment that Georgie does have a point after all.

Georgie: Here is the aforementioned key to a future. Inside, there are handwritten plans for windmills, watermills, silos, hand-drawn schematics, guides to refining grain, creating lumber, aqueducts… A book of medieval human achievement so we may have a future from our past.
I don’t know what you guys think but this quote from Georgie really proves that analytics is fundamental, not only to survive a zombie apocalypse, but may be the key to the survival of the human race.