You should read this book

Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work by Matthew Crawford. The work referred to in the title is manual work- physically manipulating objects to create or repair. He explores the intellectual demands of manual work and explains just how much more mentally invigorating it can be than "knowledge work." It made me want to get my hands dirty, but also made me reconsider the value of college vs. vocational/technical training. Pick up a copy. Better yet, check it out from the library. Warning: There is some salty language, and you may need a dictionary to decode some passages. The author's vocabulary is extensive.