Slightly unrelated tirade:

Background in psychology here: Psychology and sociology are also terrifyingly hard fields to pin down. Any one human’s behavior can be wildly inconsistent within a given set of parameters, and ppl evolve across time. Cultural context and social expectations come into play at and individual level.

Add in individual sensitivities to authority, understanding of a request, general intelligence, and you get massively varied outcomes that may change as a person grows and changes.

Then, for sociology, pile on group pressures and tendencies, plus group think and group cultural context (I have no background in sociology).

I truly believe psychology and sociology are great fields of study, that yield light on human truths. That said, from a technical scientific perspective, I think it’s nigh impossible to measure their value the same way as you would for mathematics or physics. At least, without finding a way to apply those fields to psychology lol

Not to mention a true farming life is brutal. Those 4am wakeup calls aren’t optional, if you’re truly living off it. Tractor breaks down? Cow’s sick? Want lunch?

You fix it, you kill it, you make it.

Because the non-industrial scale profit margins on farming suck. So you don’t have the money to pay someone for many of the luxuries city folks enjoy. Do it for a year, and you either learn to love the struggle or you quit.

There are some amazing parts of farming. And the life can be incredible. But farmers are ridiculously tough for a reason.