"How old are you, anyway?"

"Seven."

"And if you're not in a creche or an apprenticeship, what do you do?"

"I go to school."

"What do you learn?"

"Math. Science. Languages. History. Current events. Basic principles of art and music and stuff."

"Sounds like the sorts of things they cover for kids who stay in creche."

"Did you just stop learning everything that wasn't useful for the one job when you were seven?"

"I read, and we study a few other things formally too between servantmaking lessons. Not everyone needs to know how to do everything. I knew what I wanted to do when I was seven. Actually, all four of me wanted to be servantmakers."

"Okay. Some people just know. Mama knew she was going to be a teacher for as long as she can remember."

"See, there you go. Although people who want to be teachers tend to stay in creche, because that's people who are already teachers are to learn from."

"I'm glad our system works the way it does, though, because Aunt Emily didn't know she really really wanted to be a doctor until she was already studying it and she never would have picked it if you had to when you were a kid."

"Well, some professions or individual teachers work like that. There are doctors who will take little apprentices but more usually you've got to be at least thirteen or fourteen. I thought about it but I mostly wanted to be a servantmaker and I could start as soon as I could find someone to take me."

"I'm pretty sure Aunt Emily didn't pick until she was in college but maybe she would have sooner if she hadta."

"It's also entirely possible to change careers. Plenty of people work in a shop or on a farm or something simple like that until they decide what they want to study."

"Okay. That makes sense."

"I'd certainly hope so."

"Not everything people do makes sense."

"Yes, but if the way people chose jobs was too nonsensical, that would be a little sadder than if people choose silly hobbies."

"I meant like how people have wars sometimes and stuff."

"Yes. Those are also bad. But I'm not sure they actually don't make sense. They often do, at the time."

"Sometimes. And sometimes people are mean for stupid reasons, like someone looks different than them or comes from somewhere else or disagrees with them."

"Yep."

"And sometimes people elect really stupid politicians because they have a lot of money and can advertise better."

"Well, people could elect politicians they'd never heard of, instead, but I'm not sure if that would be better."