I’m a high school dropout who dated a Serbian PhD. We had enough in common to spend hours talking about any number of various subjects like language families and their evolution, history, and various sciences.
She says her American counterparts are ignorant, arrogant, and self righteous.
A friend of my dad was a very successful self employed automotive genuis, brilliant heavy equipment mechanic who took a job as a crane lead problem solver technician. He is called when the engineers and designers can’t fix problems on high end construction cranes. Writes his own ticket. One of the most easy going and laid back country boys you could ever meet. No college degree.