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This is not a criticism of the awesome movie, or the awesome technician in it, but the "doctor" comment at the very outset reminded me of something. Forgive me while I rant a little...


While my wife was terminally ill, someone posted a comment here that chided folks about not choosing a piano technician in the same way that they choose a doctor, and added for emphasis that "it's basically the same thing," or words to that effect.

Since my wife was terminal and in a downhill slide (I actually read the comment during one of her many hospital stays), I didn't want to waste the energy to reply. Frankly, it's a waste of energy even now, but I just want to go on record as saying that it's not the same thing.

First of all, it requires years of advanced education to become a medical doctor. A piano technician only needs the chutzpah to want to be a piano technician. I understand that to be legit it requires some skill and practice (and ideally some training), but a medical doctor isn't even let out of the gate until she finishes years of education, an internship, a residency, board certifications, etc.

Secondly, medical doctors are heavily regulated, and have untold numbers of eyes on them most of them time, holding them accountable (and rightly so). Piano tech's...not so much (again, rightly so).

And all of the above makes sense because of the consequences associated with each profession. If a piano doctor makes a mistake, a piano doesn't perform up to its full potential, or perhaps is even ruined. But if a medical doctor makes a mistake, their patient can die. They're doctoring people, not inanimate musical instruments. And worse than dying, the patient can die in excruciating pain. A mistreated piano may only hurt people's ears. A "dead" piano can be replaced. A dead patient cannot, so even the indirect consequences of a doctor's actions are more significant.

Believe me, I get the analogy: "piano doctors" "cure" "ill" pianos. But by the same rationale, the guy who's replacing the cracked screen on my daughter's macBook Pro as I write this, is also a "doctor." So is the guy who tunes up my bike. Even I'm a "doctor" when I put air in the tires or repair a punctured inner tube. Right?

But choosing a medical doctor tends to be entirely different. First of all, sometimes you don't even have a choice. For example, there were fewer than 100 oncologists in the entire US that treated the kind of cancer I had a few years ago; fortunately, one practiced in my area, but only one. My option if I wanted a second opinion was a two-hour drive away (and even that's relatively close compared to people who live in most parts of the country). Even more fortunately, my oncologist was awesome. My wife had little choice either, because she saw virtually every oncologist in our area who treated her type of cancer. Above and beyond that, there are artificial boundaries such as who practices in which group, who accepts your insurance, etc. Frankly, neither of us really had much choice at all about who treated us.

Some might say, "Come on, Retsacnal, you're talking about cancer specialists. A piano tech is more like your primary care physician." Perhaps, but my PCP has essentially the same educational and regulatory requirements as a cancer specialist, the same accountability, and faces the same risks and consequences in practicing medicine.

I value pianos just as much as the next person here, but I value the people in my life a whole lot more. People doctoring and piano doctoring may be analogous, but they are not the same.