I've always been very proud that in my life I have mastered two blue collar trades, and I have actually earned my living at both. These are jobs that required no high levels of abstract thought, but intelligence, hard work (much of it manual labor), practice, and a long apprenticeship under a master.
I am a qualified stereo plotter operator, its a machine used to look at air photo negatives and produce topographic maps. I am also, as you know, an old school maritime navigator, using charts, compasses, sextants, and tedious mathematical tables and publications.
Both jobs are very different now than when I learned them, they are done with software and digital devices, not paper and pencil, drafting tools and eye/hand coordination. The new ways require certificates and licenses from the practitioners. I can no longer earn my living that way, and I can no longer teach my skills to the next generation.
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- "Fuzzy subject" graduate has an epiphany