>Someone still has to shovel the piles of shit or dig a ditch.

I strongly believe that if you stay curious and pay attention to your work, any work can be(come) meaningful and rewarding.

Devise your own faster/better/lighter shovel or digger, or your own process for shovelling or digging etc.

The human mind is beautiful in that if you "feed" it the right way, it outputs the most amazing stuff.