"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."

"They could also pay more attention to what the politicians were actually saying. I'm pretty sure everyone's heard of at least one non-stupid politician."

"A lot of politicians sound smart and then turn out to be stupid."

"Yes. But if the smart-sounding thing they say now and the smart-sounding thing they said a while ago contradict each other and they dodge questions about it that's a good way of telling."

"But I'd rather have one who can change their mind when they learn new things and is smart enough to know that most people won't understand that, than one who never changes their mind or says things that are obviously a bad idea to say."

"Right. But if you ask them about it and they say they changed their minds or learned better, that's different than if they dodge the question or pretend they never said the first thing."

"But politicians who claim they have learned things tend not to be elected. Which means that if one claims that, they aren't paying attention, or don't want to be elected."

"I don't want someone to be in charge of me who lies to me."

"That is a reasonable thing to want, I acknowledge."

"Yes."

"But if I wanted to be the Prime Minister or the General Secretary or the First Citizen or whatever of some city-state, I would probably want it badly enough to at least simplify things to voters if I thought that would help."

"Simplifying is different than lying. If you try to tell everyone everything they get bored and wander off."