"Why? You're a clever fellow, not blind to culture like so many 
engineers. You could have joined the First Distributed Republic or any of a 
hundred synthetic phyles on the West Coast. You would have had decent prospects 
and been free from all this"—Finkle-McGraw jabbed his cane at the two 
big airships—"behavioural discipline that we impose upon ourselves. Why 
did you impose it on yourself, Mr. Hackworth?"