This reminds me a bit of someone I met young who was and remains a scientist in my head. He was a coal miner, probably since he was very young himself (given his age and origin, starting in the mines at 13/14 would not have been unusual) and he liked to say he was no good with education, but he liked learning. He'd been very participative and influential in improving a lot of things about mining in his community, but he didn't see himself as the source of improvement. He pointed out that anything we all agree exists outside of and despite us humans (whether this is science or, to take Plato for an example, the perfect idea of a circle) is still going to have to go through a human to make it into our world. His whole approach was to get to know the humans implementing the engineering or the science and then to work with them to expand what was being done to include more humans or to consider humans a bit more. I think he had a great grasp of science, thanks to his 'real world' degree, perhaps more so than some more classically trained (though equally valuable) scientists. I like to try and channel his approach in any project in which I work.