I heard the kid had a can of Pringles, so I wasn't too concerned. /s
Most of the modern thinking revolves around "staying found" as opposed to finding moss on the north side of trees and the like. A lot of the generalised instructions like "walk downstream along a river to find a town" might not be true in the desert? We all start out on a camping trip "found" more or less. But I always carry at least two sure-fire methods of building fire even though it is hardly ever really required. Magnesium/flint, flint/tinder zippo/bic etc. I know how to make a fire with a bow-drill - this is a very good exercise/training in the garage or in a non-survival situation. In cold, rainy weather esp. fire has a morale building effect and keeps the critters away to a certain extent.
I spent a cold and very thirsty night under a tree in Northern California 50 miles from the nearest town. A front came in and covered the stars and moon. I literally could not see my hand in front of my face. After 10 miles on the trail back to camp my flashlight died. Woke up the next day to find myself 50 yards from my tent. Now I carry at least 3 flashlights, one of them is a windup.