I was challenged in my first 20 or so years that book learning was not that important by someone that never even graduated from high school In a way he had a point because I see a stability and wisdom in practical however academic or formal learning adds a perspective where you're able to jump and connect the dots to work outside a specific domain and come up with even more out of the box solutions for problems Having been raised on a farm started me on the practical band and being an engineering was another practical way being a therapist is pretty specific but in a way systems can be very intriguing and you can transfer training between domains