[MooreteP]

Landscaper, Car Washer, Corn-Detasseler, Dishwasher/Busboy/Waiter, Bagger/Sacker/Restocker/Butcher-Shop Cleaner, Drugstore worker, Draughtsman before CAD, Inspection (NDE) Engineer Intern, Reactor Engineer, Bureaucrat, Physics Teacher, Robotics Mentor.

I can't add too much new to this thread. Wayne TenBrink said it best.
I still use all of these skills season-to season, at home, work, and play.

In my current avocation as a physics teacher, I engineer minds, which is harder than I expected as machines are far more predictable and easier to dissect.
Four times a year we assign physics projects that have a tendency to invert the class hierarchy. Those that can invent, but may not be great test-takers, shine. Those that excel at tests, find themselves in unfamiliar territory. Both benefit from the experience. (In creating these projects, I get to be my own GDC, designing for a diversity of outcomes, with the usual experience of learning what mistakes I made in designing a challenge.)

My idea here is that no one gets paid to take a test.

I still landscape, serve dinner, wash dishes and cars, bag my own groceries, draw, inspect students work, pay bureaucrats, and fix stuff.

I don't believe that Dean meant to offend those with exceptional mechanical skills who create inventions from raw materials, but he did.

Cut him some slack. He has done so much to focus our interests and energies on something that exercises our intelligence and skills to be more creative.
Our world is better for this.