Sort-of. But also, in the sense that most people are masters at such specific things, that their value can ***only*** inherently exist within the confines of a rich and expansive society. People value these skills more than any other, rightfully so, in the environment that they exist in. But along the same vein: what good is it to know how to build a compiler from scratch, when all of a sudden you just realized you don't just *theoretically* want to "feel" like you could someday build your own log cabin: you need to do it *right now*. The jewellery store thing was just a wink-and-nod.