The phrase “cut your teeth” means to gain significant experience in a field, often starting with less sophisticated equipment or tasks. This expression may have evolved from the eruption of wisdom teeth coinciding with a young adult’s first work experience. Starting with basic tasks can lead to mastery and prepare for more demanding tasks.
Everyone has to start somewhere, and that’s the philosophy behind the phrase cut your teeth. To cut your teeth on something means to get the first significant experience. Someone who is an expert chef, for example, may have started flipping burgers when he was a teenager. A computer expert could have done this working on early Apple II PCs. Whatever a person’s field of expertise, they most likely cut their teeth working with less sophisticated equipment at an early age.
The expression cutting your teeth most likely evolved from the sometimes painful realities of human dental development. Many young adults experience an eruption of the third molars known as “wisdom teeth”. Sometimes erupting, or cutting, these wisdom teeth is a relatively painless experience, but other times it’s a painful crowding situation. These extra teeth may need to be surgically removed if their presence becomes a problem. Since the eruption of wisdom teeth or “eye teeth” often coincides with a young adult’s first real work experience, the association between the two rites of passage seemed most likely inevitable.
Cutting your teeth on a particular basic machine or project may or may not be a satisfying experience at the moment, but it often prepares you for more demanding tasks. A professional chef-in-training, for example, may start preparing salads or appetizers in a small restaurant. The job itself can be very demanding or repetitive or boring, but if the chef ever needs to replace a missing salad bowl years later, she has the skills to do it. By starting with basic equipment and procedures, you often develop a sense of mastery that could prove beneficial as your career progresses.
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