The Man Who Played Violin in the Subway Article Related Questions Analysis (in progress)

1. The way we perceive beauty is different for everyone. The definition for what is beautiful is influenced by personal preferences. Beauty is also shaped by knowledge on a given subject related to what is being examined as "beautiful". Additionally, we may see something as impressive or beautiful if we understand and can identify how bad "poor quality" is vs how good "professional" is. Furthermore, our personal lives, what we do for entertainment or an occupation, or the conditions/treatments we received in our childhoods mold our sense of understanding of beauty. Finally, our ability to identify beauty is affect heavily on our current priorities, how much of our attention is currently occupied, and how much attention we are giving to the observation of our surroundings.

2. The vast majority of people in a common place in a busy hour don't really have, or really give time to appreciate what is around them. In this sort of situations, its a common place seen countless times by people who are occupied with other things or higher personal value including work or personal problems. Repeatedly going through the same place at the same time every day for the same reason, such as taking the subway to work, heavily degrades a person's expectations and create second nature habits to the point where they don't think of it any more than a place they were to get somewhere else. Pretty much everyone there who has their own priorities and attention given to a single something won't notice anything outside of their own personal "bubble". It takes a low level of business, a large amount of attention free, and/or especially a conscious search for it for someone to truly identify something beautiful in that sort of scenario.

3. In this sort of situation, it is very difficult to find talent, especially that which we don't expect, and it's more than improbable that it will be found by those who are part of the massive mob of self-concerned individuals that make up a majority of possible beauty identifiers. Preconceived assumptions and stereotypes decrease our expectations in these scenarios, and our consumed focus limits our ability to observe our environment, let alone notice the unexpected. The very aspect of unexpectedness hinders us from knowing even generally what to look for, so people who even look for something unexpected but search for the wrong thing increases the talent's unexpectedness. Spotting such unexpected talent in such ordinary, unchanging locations is extremely difficult, and impossible for some people. It is easier for people who aren't trying to get from one place to another, have an understanding for extraordinary talent, and have more attention to give to observation of their environment, but it's still really hard. In the end, we will most likely only experience this sort of talent is if we are in the right place at the right time with the right mindset.