A herbarium sheet holds one specimen, not the whole meadow. The collector’s skill was never finding plants — it was choosing, from an armful, the single one worth pressing. Generation at this desk is run the same way: generously, and then with a hard cull.
The economics make the habit easy. Standard frames cost 6 credits, and a failed job refunds itself, so a sitting can afford thirty frames. What it cannot afford is keeping all thirty. Every frame is read against the seedling card — age, hair, build, face, signature, in order — and the working rule is to keep the best third and let the rest go without ceremony.
Only kept frames earn finishing money: an edit at 21 credits, a swap at 26, an upscale at 61. A frame that failed the card earns none of them, however beautiful it is standing alone, because beauty was never the test — fidelity was.
Volume is the generator’s job. Judgement is yours. The frame on the desk holds one specimen because someone chose it, and choosing is the craft.