Question: This question has come from a conversation at loggerheads. I can't find the answer online.
There are two positions on which is the correct expression to use when starting a job.For the example, I've used a job as a plumber.

Person A states "John becomes a plumber today"
Person B states "John has started working as a plumber today".

My understanding is that person A, while it is used in causal conversations is incorrect because it suggests a changing into something when they haven't changed, they added something to who they are. A job.
Can someone please advise which is formally correct and if using becomes is still incorrect use of the word or how they fit together.

Answer: 
Quote
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I haven't read the book but I searched for the line you are mentioning on [goodreads](https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/16176791-the-song-of-achilles). This is the complete quote:

> 
> *I stopped watching for ridicule, the scorpion's tail hidden in his words. He said what he meant; he was puzzled if you did not. Some people might have mistaken this for simplicity. But is it not a sort of genius to cut always to the heart?*
> 
> 
> 

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Piecewise Explanation
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> 
> *I stopped watching for ridicule, the scorpion's tail hidden in his words. He said what he meant; he was puzzled if you did not.*
> 
> 
> 

This means that the narrator earlier used to take *he's* words as a ridicule - comparable to a scorpion's sting. But not anymore. Narrator has understood that *he* only speaks his mind. *He* is so simple (naive maybe) that *he* doesn't know that others don't always do the same.

> 
> *Some people might have mistaken this for simplicity. But is it not a sort of genius to cut always to the heart?*
> 
> 
> 

The narrator explains that while some people think that this behavior can be classified as simplicity, yet as per narrator this behavior is actually the quality of a genius person to speak what you mean and cut away all the fluff from what is really important.
"To cut to the heart" could mean different things in different contexts. For example it could be a poetic way of saying "When you attack someone, you hurt them very badly", or perhaps, using the metaphor "the heart of the problem" (meaning the most important aspect), "When you analyse a problem, you immediately see the most important aspect of it".

So, the author is saying that the ability to **always** do this is a **sort of genius**, ie requires exceptional skill and is a very rare ability.

In this case, it appears that the problem that he "cuts to the heart of" is "to communicate very directly and with the utmost truthfulness".