I try to bring all young villagers up to at least trainee level in the three main skills, with a few also taken to the herbs to learn doctoring as well. That way I can easily switch villagers between tasks as needed, without the constant need for monitoring. When young, I try to use villagers as builders or farmers, and put the older ones on research as it means less travelling. Once a villager reaches master in a particular skill I'll try to switch them to another as soon as possible and replace them with a master in another skill to train up on the way to becoming, hopefully, Esteemed Elder. Obviously, some times I need to modify things if I particularly need the villagers to concentrate on getting tech points, say, but that is the general idea.
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To err is human; to arr is pirate.