On violins, language, and dental care

[justben]

I was chatting with my dental hygienist at my dentist appointment this morning. We always have great conversations. This morning the topic somehow shifted to careers and beginnings, and I told her a story I once heard. It's almost certainly apocryphal, but it goes something like this.

There once was a young man with a violin. This young man

Comments

[shaddragon]

There's also a version of that one I've heard where the young man does decide he's going to try anyway and ends up becoming great-- and then meeting up with the master again.

I like your hygienist's story best, though.

[starlancer]

This makes a good pair of stories to be told together and I see it at a good time in that it illustrates something I have been saying to others lately: people vary widely. What helps one person greatly will crush another and merely annoy or infuriate a third. If you truly want to be helpful, you are far more likely to be successful at that if you know your audience well enough to know what approach is likely best for them and the situation. It isn't always the one it might seem from knowing them only briefly or on the surface, either.

There are many ways of dealing with different situations, and while some are clearly wrong (say, going postal with an Uzi) a great many more will be suitable for some but not all people. None are going to be right for everyone.