Marion Nestle makes a good point in one of her books, possibly “What to Eat,” but I can’t fully remember. She notes (and I am paraphrasing) “people often complain that diet trends change too fast, when in fact the prevailing wisdom of the past 100 years has been to eat more fruits and vegetables.” I think your points are spot on in terms of people liking to relate to one another, but I also think people just like new stuff. New trends get press, new products get advertising and shelf space. “New” “superfoods” must work because they are new. For a lot of these problems, a little bit of sound education would go a long way.

I agree that few people know what they want to do at 14. In the US the “golden age” is 17, and most students are no better. Maybe with a few years of an undeclared major, you can push the decision off to 19. And even after you earn a degree, you still don’t really know anything. I’ve worked with new hires, and they require a lot of training. It’s not the universities fault, and I would argue that a university is not a trade school (others might feel differently). The university should teach people how to learn and be adaptable. I’ve told many students that expecting a four year education to prepare you for a forty year career is unreasonable.

I always liked the Ritual of the Calling for Canadian engineers. Some universities in the US have the Order of the Engineer, which serves a similar purpose. We still wear a steel ring, though it’s cut differently. The ring is a nice reminder of the importance that engineers serve, and you really can never be reminded frequently enough about the importance of ethics.