Idiom: Baptism by fire
It’s nice to ease into something new, but sometimes we must undergo baptism by fire.
Baptism is often used in a religious sense to mean being initiated into a certain belief and becoming a follower of that religion.
It’s not, however, the only meaning.
Most English words differ depending on the context of the situation in which it is used.
Baptism by fire means to learn something by being thrust into a difficult situation.
It’s learning the hard way.
Quite often, baptism by fire occurs when someone doesn’t have time to acquire knowledge in the usual way.
Imagine a new accountant joining an accounting firm during tax season.
Under normal circumstances, this person has time to learn how the company operates and adapt to its system.
Unfortunately, because it’s the middle of tax season, the busiest time of year for them, it’s baptism by fire.
The new employee needs to get up to speed as fast as possible.
The rapid pace of technological innovation is forcing most of us to learn on the fly.
Yes, some of us may be offered a few hours of training on new computer systems or software, but mostly it’s baptism by fire.
One day we’re using software that we are used to, and the next day everything is entirely different.
When it comes to technology, that’s just the way it goes.
Baptism by fire is par for the course regarding new technology.
Now that I think about it, there may be a market for fire-resistant underwear among office workers.
It could be an excellent business opportunity.
Their learning curve is going to be extremely steep.
If they cannot hit the ground running, they will at least have to be walking very quickly.
Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test
This post is understandable by someone with at least an 8th-grade education (age 13 – 14).
On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 67.
The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100.
