I Ching Hexagram 4: Youthful Folly - Meaning, Changing Lines and Guidance

I Ching Hexagram 4, Youthful Folly, is Meng, the hexagram of the unformed mind and the teaching that forms it, built from Mountain above Water. Its Judgement contains the oracle's own rule about not asking the same question three times, and its six changing lines trace a full arc from first discipline to the correction of another person's fault.

What does I Ching Hexagram 4, Youthful Folly, mean?

I Ching Hexagram 4, Youthful Folly, is Meng, the hexagram of the unformed mind and of the teaching relationship that forms it. The Chinese character suggests a plant covered over by creeping growth, and every standard translation keeps that sense: something is present and alive but obscured, not yet able to see its own shape. Wilhelm and Baynes gave it as Youthful Folly, Legge kept the transliteration Meng, and Ritsema and Karcher chose Enveloping. The line structure says the same thing more precisely. Four yielding lines carry two firm lines, one in the second place and one at the top. The yielding lines are the ones who do not know, pliable and easily shaped. The firm line in the second place is the teacher standing inside the situation; the firm line at the top is the corrector standing at the edge of it. Hexagram 4 meaning turns on that ratio. Ignorance is the ordinary starting condition here rather than a fault, and the practical question the reading puts to you is who is teaching whom, on whose initiative, and for how long.

Hexagram 4 sits fourth in the King Wen sequence, directly after Hexagram 3, Difficulty at the Beginning, and directly before Hexagram 5, Waiting. The Sequence of Hexagrams commentary explains the placement in exactly those terms: after things are born they are always covered, so Difficulty at the Beginning is followed by Youthful Folly, and because young things must be nourished, Youthful Folly is followed by Waiting, which concerns eating and drinking. That gives Meng a specific developmental slot. Birth has happened, growth has not yet been fed. What the hexagram describes is the gap between existing and understanding. Practitioners who read Hexagram 4 as a rebuke are reading it against its own commentary, since the Judgement opens by promising success rather than warning. The tone of Meng is closer to the tone of a good teacher looking at a beginner: nothing here is wrong, a great deal here is simply not known yet, and the work is to supply what is missing in the right order and from the right source.

Is Hexagram 4, Youthful Folly, a good hexagram to receive?

Hexagram 4, Youthful Folly, is a favorable hexagram to receive because its Judgement grants success without conditions attached to the outcome. The conditions it does attach are about conduct: ask once, accept instruction, and be steady. Meng is corrective rather than discouraging.

What do the four yielding lines of Hexagram 4 represent?

The four yielding lines of Hexagram 4, in the first, third, fourth, and fifth places, represent the ones who do not yet know. Their readings differ entirely by what contact they have with the two firm lines, which is why one of them brings good fortune and another brings humiliation.

Does Hexagram 4 always refer to a literal young person?

No. Hexagram 4, Youthful Folly, describes youth relative to a subject, not to a birthday. A surgeon of thirty years learning to sail is in Meng, and so is a company entering a market it has never sold into. The hexagram measures inexperience in one specific domain.

Which two trigrams form Hexagram 4, and why does Mountain over Water produce Youthful Folly?

Hexagram 4, Youthful Folly, is formed from Gen, the Mountain, in the upper position, and Kan, Water, in the lower position. The picture comes first: water at the foot of a mountain is a spring that has just come out of the rock. It is clean, it is small, and it has no channel, so it could still run in any direction. That is the condition of a mind at the start of learning anything. The attributes give the second half of the meaning. Kan is the abysmal, danger, the pit, and toil. Gen is keeping still, stopping, the boundary where one thing ends and the next begins. Put the stopping above the danger and you get someone who has walked into a difficulty and halted, because they cannot see which way out is real. The mountain does not move, so the spring is the only thing in this hexagram that can travel. In practice that is the working rule of Mountain over Water: the teacher supplies the shape and the limit, the student supplies the motion, and neither substitutes for the other.

The family scheme in the classic sharpens the reading further. Gen is the youngest son of the eight trigrams and Kan is the middle son, so both halves of Hexagram 4 are junior figures. There is no father trigram and no mother trigram anywhere in Meng, which is one reason the hexagram feels like a schoolroom rather than a court. Gen is also assigned the hand and Kan the ear, an odd pairing that practitioners often use directly: the hand that stops and shapes, the ear that has to receive. The placement of Kan matters as much as its presence. In Hexagram 4 the danger sits underneath, inside the situation, rather than ahead of it. That is a different warning from a hexagram where Kan sits on top and the trouble is out in front on the road. Here the risk in Youthful Folly is not that something dangerous is coming for you; the risk is that your own unformed understanding is the pit, and you carry it with you into whatever you attempt.

What does the Gen trigram contribute to Hexagram 4?

Gen, the Mountain, contributes the stopping and the boundary that make Hexagram 4 a teaching situation rather than a wandering one. Gen supplies form without motion, which in Meng is exactly what a teacher, a method, or a set of beginner's rules does for someone who cannot yet judge for themselves.

What does the Kan trigram contribute to Hexagram 4?

Kan, Water, contributes both the spring and the danger in Hexagram 4. As the spring it is the fresh, uncommitted energy of the beginner. As the abysmal it is the confusion that beginner is standing in, which is why Meng pairs promise with genuine risk rather than treating inexperience as harmless.

Where is the danger located in Hexagram 4?

The danger in Hexagram 4 sits in the lower trigram, beneath the mountain, which places it inside and underneath the person asking rather than out ahead of them. Meng points at confusion the questioner is carrying, not at an external obstacle they could simply walk around.

What does the Judgement of Hexagram 4, Youthful Folly, say?

The Judgement of Hexagram 4 states that Youthful Folly has success, that it is not the teacher who seeks the young fool but the young fool who seeks the teacher, that at the first oracle the answer is given, that asking two or three times is importunity and the importunate receive nothing, and that perseverance furthers. This is the most unusual Judgement in the whole classic, because in Hexagram 4 the oracle stops describing a situation and states a rule about how it may be consulted. That fits the hexagram exactly. Meng is the teaching hexagram, so it sets the terms of teaching, and the first term is direction of initiative. Instruction that is pushed at someone who has not asked does not take. The learner has to arrive with a question of their own before anything transmits. The second term is singleness of asking. One clear question receives one clear answer, and Youthful Folly explicitly withholds when the same question comes back for a third try.

The importunity clause has an obvious practical meaning once you watch what re-asking actually does. Asking again is rarely a request for more clarity. It is usually a search for a different verdict, and at that moment the questioner has stopped learning from the source and started auditioning it. Hexagram 4 names that as the behavior that ends the exchange. The clause applies well beyond divination. It reads directly onto second opinions, onto the third mentor consulted after the first two said something unwelcome, and onto the habit of re-litigating advice already given. The Judgement then closes with perseverance furthers, and in Meng that steadiness belongs to the student rather than the situation. The single ask must be followed by sustained work, not by another ask. Note also that the Judgement grants success at the very start, before any of the conditions. Youthful Folly does not make the outcome conditional on being clever. It makes it conditional on how the not-knowing is handled.

Can you ask the I Ching the same question twice after getting Hexagram 4?

Hexagram 4 specifically advises against it. Its Judgement says the first oracle informs, and that two or three askings are importunity that receives no answer. Practitioners who draw Youthful Folly on a repeated question generally read it as the oracle commenting on the repetition itself.

Why does the Judgement of Hexagram 4 say the young fool seeks the teacher?

Because Hexagram 4 treats initiative as the condition that makes instruction work. Teaching offered to someone who has not asked slides off. In Meng the movement must run upward from the one who lacks knowledge, which is also why the mountain in this hexagram stays still and the spring does the traveling.

What does perseverance furthers mean in Hexagram 4?

In Hexagram 4, perseverance furthers attaches to the learner's steadiness after the answer arrives. Meng asks for sustained, repeated practice on a single course rather than for more consultation, matching the spring in its Image, which becomes a river only by continuing along one route.

What does the Image of Hexagram 4, the spring at the foot of the mountain, teach?

The Image of Hexagram 4 reads that a spring wells up at the foot of the mountain, giving the image of Youth, and that the superior man accordingly fosters his character by thoroughness in all that he does. The picture and the advice are tied together tightly. A spring has no route yet. It becomes a river only by filling each hollow it comes to and then continuing, which is the same behavior the classic assigns to water throughout the Kan trigram. Nothing gets skipped. A spring cannot leap ahead to the wide part of the river, and Hexagram 4 says a person in the learning position cannot either. Thoroughness here is a structural instruction rather than a moral one. It means finishing the current depression before moving to the next, mastering a foundation before building on it, and refusing to fake the parts you have not done. The Image also explains why Meng never reads as shameful. Spring water is the cleanest water on the mountain. Not knowing yet is not the same as being corrupted.

The word Wilhelm chose, character, deserves attention in Hexagram 4, because the Image does not say the superior man accumulates knowledge. It says he forms character. Meng distinguishes between information, which can be handed over in an afternoon, and formation, which is what a spring does to itself over the length of a mountain. That distinction gives practitioners a useful test when Hexagram 4 comes up around study or training. If the honest goal is to acquire a fact, Meng has little to say. If the goal is to become the sort of person who can handle this domain, Meng is describing the whole process, including the slow parts. The other detail in the Image is location. The spring appears at the foot of the mountain, and everything above it is unmoving rock. Youthful Folly places the learner at the base of something large and old that will not adjust itself, so the adaptation has to come from the water.

What does the Image of Hexagram 4 advise the superior man to do?

The Image of Hexagram 4 advises the superior man to foster his character through thoroughness in everything he does. In Meng that means completing each stage before advancing to the next, in imitation of a spring that fills every hollow on its way down rather than jumping ahead to the river.

Why is Hexagram 4 pictured as a spring rather than a river?

Hexagram 4 is pictured as a spring because a spring has no channel yet and could still go anywhere, which is precisely the condition of an unformed understanding. A river has already been shaped. The spring in Youthful Folly is pure, small, and entirely undecided about its route.

What does thoroughness mean in practice in Hexagram 4?

Thoroughness in Hexagram 4 means refusing to skip the unglamorous foundation. In practice it is doing the drills, reading the primary source rather than the summary, and staying at a stage until it is genuinely finished, since a spring that leaps ahead simply disappears into the rock.

What do the six changing lines of Hexagram 4, Youthful Folly, mean?

The six changing lines of Hexagram 4 track one complete arc from a beginner's first rules to the correction of someone else's fault. Six at the beginning says that to make a fool develop it furthers to apply discipline, that the fetters should then be removed, and that going on in that way brings humiliation. This is the opening line of any training: rules first, then release, and the shame belongs to keeping the restraints on past their usefulness. Nine in the second place says that bearing with fools in kindliness brings good fortune, that knowing how to take women brings good fortune, and that the son is capable of taking charge of the household. This is the teacher's line, central and firm, holding correspondence with the yielding fifth place, and its logic is that tolerance toward the unformed is what eventually produces someone able to run things. Six in the third place warns against the maiden who loses possession of herself at the sight of a man of bronze, and says nothing furthers. It is a yielding line that abandons its proper correspondent at the top and throws itself at the nearest strong figure instead.

Six in the fourth place says entangled folly brings humiliation, and the structure explains why it is the bleakest line in Hexagram 4. It is the only line here with no firm neighbor and no firm correspondent: yielding lines sit on either side of it in the third and fifth places, and its correspondent in the first place is yielding too. It is folly with no contact whatsoever with anyone who could correct it, tangled in its own half-understanding. Six in the fifth place says childlike folly brings good fortune, and it is generally treated as the ruling line of Youthful Folly. Occupying the place of authority as a yielding line, it holds correspondence with the firm second place, so the person in charge is the one openly willing to be taught. Nine at the top says that in punishing folly it does not further to commit transgressions, and that the only thing that furthers is to prevent transgressions. Correction at the end of Meng is defensive, aimed at stopping the fault from recurring, never at satisfying the corrector's anger.

Which line is the ruler of Hexagram 4?

Six in the fifth place, childlike folly, is normally read as the ruler of Hexagram 4, with nine in the second place as its constituting counterpart. The pairing is the point: Meng is governed jointly by the one who admits ignorance and the one who answers it kindly.

Which changing line of Hexagram 4 is the most difficult?

Six in the fourth place, entangled folly, is the most difficult line of Hexagram 4. It is the single line in the hexagram with neither a firm neighbor nor a firm correspondent, so it stands for confusion sealed off from any teacher, and its text gives humiliation with no remedy offered.

What happens if all six lines of Hexagram 4 change?

If all six lines of Hexagram 4 change, Youthful Folly becomes Hexagram 49, Revolution. Every student line hardens and both teacher lines yield, which reads as the teaching relationship being overturned outright rather than completed, and the situation reforming on entirely new terms.

What are the nuclear and opposite hexagrams of Hexagram 4, Youthful Folly?

The nuclear hexagram of Hexagram 4 is Hexagram 24, Return, and its opposite is Hexagram 49, Revolution. The nuclear figure is built from the inner lines: the second, third, and fourth places of Youthful Folly form Zhen, Thunder, and the third, fourth, and fifth places form Kun, Earth, giving Earth above Thunder, which is Return. That is a striking core for a hexagram about ignorance, because Return is the winter solstice figure, the single firm line coming back at the very bottom after a period of complete yielding. Inside Meng sits the turning point, the first stir of understanding, small and low down and unmistakably alive. The opposite hexagram is found by changing every line, which converts Mountain over Water into Lake over Fire, Hexagram 49, Revolution. Youthful Folly and Revolution are the two ends of one axis: knowledge accepted from a teacher at one end, the existing order thrown over at the other. Hexagram 4 also has an inverse. Turn Youthful Folly upside down and you get Hexagram 3, Difficulty at the Beginning.

The Hexagram 3 and Hexagram 4 pairing is one of the tightest in the King Wen arrangement, since both are made from Kan and one other trigram, and each is literally the other flipped end over end. Read together they give two views of the same early moment. Difficulty at the Beginning is the sprout pushing against the ground with thunder underneath driving it; Youthful Folly is that same sprout still covered over, with the mountain above holding it in place. One is about force meeting resistance, the other about form meeting ignorance. The nuclear Return is what makes Meng ultimately hopeful in practice. Return describes a correction that is small, internal, and early, arriving before anything has gone badly wrong, and the classic associates it with coming back along the way without going far. A reader who draws Hexagram 4 with strong inner emphasis can take that seriously: the missing understanding is not far off, and the movement back toward it has already started underneath the confusion.

Why does Hexagram 4 contain Hexagram 24, Return, as its nuclear hexagram?

Because the inner lines of Hexagram 4 form Thunder below Earth. That nuclear Return places a single reviving firm line at the base of Youthful Folly, which practitioners read as the first movement of real understanding stirring underneath a situation that still looks entirely unformed on the surface.

What does it mean if Hexagram 4 changes into Hexagram 49?

Hexagram 4 changing into Hexagram 49, Revolution, means the learning arrangement does not simply mature, it gets replaced. Read it as an apprenticeship ending in a break with the teacher, or a beginner's framework being discarded wholesale once its limits become intolerable.

Is Hexagram 4 the same as Hexagram 3 turned upside down?

Yes. Inverting Hexagram 4, Youthful Folly, produces Hexagram 3, Difficulty at the Beginning, and inverting Hexagram 3 produces Hexagram 4. They are a single pair in the King Wen sequence showing the same early stage from opposite ends, one as struggle, the other as ignorance.

What does Hexagram 4, Youthful Folly, mean for a decision?

For a decision, Hexagram 4, Youthful Folly, says you do not yet have what you need to choose, and that the missing element is instruction rather than more data. Meng is not telling you to gather another spreadsheet; it is telling you that you do not yet know how to read the one you have, and that somebody already does. The practical instruction from the Judgement is unusually literal: find that person, ask them one clear question, and then act on the answer instead of touring further opinions. Youthful Folly withholds from the third asking, and that clause applies to human advisors as much as to coins. The upper trigram supplies the second instruction, which is to accept a boundary. Gen the Mountain does not move, and a beginner is better served by a method they have not yet earned the right to question than by improvising freely. If the reading finds you in the experienced seat, Hexagram 4 reverses the advice: do not chase the person who has not asked you, because instruction delivered uninvited does not land.

Hexagram 4 also names two specific ways this decision goes wrong. The first is six in the third place, choosing on the basis of who looks impressive. That line describes attaching to the nearest figure of visible strength rather than to the person you are actually connected to, and it is a common failure in decisions about advisors, investors, and mentors. Nothing furthers is a blunt verdict by the standards of the classic. The second is six in the fourth place, entangled folly, where the decision is made alone, out of contact with anyone qualified to correct it, and defended with half-understanding. Against both, note again that the Judgement of Youthful Folly opens with success. Meng does not forecast a bad outcome for this decision. It forecasts a good one on a condition, and the condition is a sequence: learn first, then decide, rather than deciding and then learning why the decision was wrong.

Does Hexagram 4 mean yes or no to a decision?

Hexagram 4 answers neither yes nor no; it answers not yet, and not by you alone. Youthful Folly moves the question back a step, from what should be chosen to who can teach you enough to choose well, and it promises success once that order is respected.

Should you gather more advice after receiving Hexagram 4?

One good source, asked once, is what Hexagram 4 recommends. Its Judgement treats repeated asking as importunity, so collecting a fourth and fifth opinion works against the reading. Youthful Folly wants a single clear consultation followed by steady action, not a survey.

What is the biggest mistake to avoid when Hexagram 4 answers a decision?

Pretending to a competence you have not built. Hexagram 4 gives that failure its own line, six in the fourth place, entangled folly, where someone tangled in partial knowledge stays out of reach of correction. Admitting the gap out loud is what turns Meng favorable.

What does Hexagram 4, Youthful Folly, mean in a relationship reading?

In a relationship reading, Hexagram 4, Youthful Folly, points to an imbalance of experience between two people, with one in the teaching position and the other in the learning position whether or not either would use those words. The imbalance is rarely about age. It shows up as one person having done this kind of relationship before and the other not. Meng treats that arrangement as workable, even productive, on two conditions drawn straight from its lines. Six at the beginning says the fetters must come off, so the teaching phase has to be temporary; a partnership that is still instructing after several years has kept the restraints on past their purpose. Six in the fifth place, childlike folly, brings good fortune and rules the hexagram, which in relationship terms means the person willing to say plainly that they do not know is the one this reading favors. For a new relationship, Youthful Folly reads as genuinely early, with the shape still undecided.

Two of the lines in Hexagram 4 map onto recognizable relationship failures. Six in the third place describes losing possession of yourself at the sight of a man of bronze, and it is the line for being dazzled: attaching to whoever radiates the most authority or confidence, rather than to the person you actually correspond with. The classic gives it the flat verdict that nothing furthers. Six in the fourth place is the other failure, folly with no contact, which in a couple looks like one partner drifting into private confusion that they will not bring to anyone. Against these, nine in the second place gives the good version of Meng in a relationship: bearing with the other person's inexperience kindly, which the line then says produces someone capable of taking charge. The trigram picture underlines that Youthful Folly is not primarily a romantic hexagram at all. Gen is the youngest son and Kan the middle son, so the bond Meng natively describes is mentorship, and a relationship reading here is being measured against that standard.

Does Hexagram 4 mean an age gap in a relationship?

Not necessarily. Hexagram 4, Youthful Folly, measures experience in a specific area rather than years lived. Two people the same age can sit clearly in the Meng arrangement if one has done this before and the other has not, and the reading behaves the same way either way.

What does Hexagram 4 say about a new relationship?

Hexagram 4 says a new relationship is at the spring stage: fresh, uncommitted, and without a channel yet. Youthful Folly counsels against forcing a definition onto it early, while also warning that something this unformed still needs a boundary to keep it from spilling out in every direction.

What does Hexagram 4 warn about in a relationship?

Hexagram 4 warns most sharply about two things: being dazzled by an impressive figure instead of the right one, which is six in the third place, and a teaching role that never ends, which is the failure to remove the fetters in six at the beginning.

What does Hexagram 4, Youthful Folly, mean for work and career?

For work, Hexagram 4, Youthful Folly, describes an apprenticeship, and it answers most career questions by asking which end of that apprenticeship you are on. If you are the beginner, Meng says choose a teacher or a method and submit to it rather than improvising a style you have not earned. Six at the beginning supplies the detail: discipline first, meaning the checklists, drills, and standard procedures a novice genuinely needs, followed by the removal of the fetters at the point where those rules start constraining rather than forming. If you are the senior person, nine in the second place is your line, and it makes an argument that pays: bearing with inexperience kindly ends with the son capable of taking charge of the household. Patience with a junior is how you get someone you can actually hand things to. Nine at the top covers correcting a subordinate, and its instruction is narrow. Correct to prevent the fault from recurring, not to punish, and do not commit a transgression of your own in the process.

Applied to specific career questions, Hexagram 4 tends to say yes on a learning basis. Asked about taking an unfamiliar job, Youthful Folly does not forbid it, since its Judgement grants success outright, but it makes the offer conditional on entering as someone who expects to be taught rather than as someone performing mastery. Asked about starting a venture in a field you do not know, the hexagram points at the same gap and at the mountain above: get a structure, a mentor, or an established playbook, because the spring at the base of Meng has no channel of its own yet. The line to watch in professional settings is six in the fourth place, entangled folly, which describes the worker who has enough partial knowledge to sound plausible and has quietly stopped being in contact with anyone who could correct them. That failure grows silently and surfaces late. The remedy in Youthful Folly is unchanged from the Judgement: ask, once, clearly, of someone who actually knows.

Does Hexagram 4 mean you are not ready for a promotion?

Hexagram 4 suggests you are not yet formed for the role, but it also gives the route through. Meng promises success and points at instruction, so the reading favors asking directly what the gap is and closing it, rather than either withdrawing or bluffing your way upward.

What does Hexagram 4 say about starting a business?

Hexagram 4 permits it on an apprentice footing. Youthful Folly reads a venture in an unfamiliar field as a spring with no channel, so it calls for an existing structure, an advisor, or a proven method to supply the shape while your own energy supplies the movement.

What does Hexagram 4 advise a manager?

Hexagram 4 advises a manager to be patient with inexperience and precise with correction. Nine in the second place makes tolerance the profitable strategy, and nine at the top restricts discipline to preventing the fault from recurring rather than expressing displeasure at the person who made it.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is I Ching Hexagram 4 called in Chinese?

I Ching Hexagram 4 is called Meng. The character carries the sense of something covered over or overgrown, which is why Wilhelm and Baynes translated it as Youthful Folly, Legge left it as Meng, and Ritsema and Karcher rendered it Enveloping. The modern Chinese word for education in the sense of first instruction, qimeng, is literally the opening of the meng, and Hexagram 4 is where the classic locates schooling.

Which trigrams form Hexagram 4, Youthful Folly?

Hexagram 4, Youthful Folly, is Gen, the Mountain, above Kan, Water, giving the compact reading Mountain over Water. Read as a picture, water at the foot of a mountain is a spring that has just emerged and has no channel yet. Read as attributes, Kan is danger and Gen is keeping still, so Hexagram 4 shows someone who has met a difficulty and stopped, because they do not yet know which way to go.

Does Hexagram 4 mean the person asking is foolish?

No. In Hexagram 4, Youthful Folly, ignorance is the normal starting condition rather than a personal failing, and the Judgement promises success outright. Meng describes a mind that has not been formed on this particular subject yet. The only line in Hexagram 4 that treats folly as shameful is six in the fourth place, entangled folly, and what makes it shameful is the refusal to be in contact with anyone who could correct it.

Which changing line of Hexagram 4 is the most favorable?

Six in the fifth place, childlike folly, is the most favorable changing line of Hexagram 4 and is usually treated as the ruling line. It sits in the position of authority yet is a yielding line, and it holds correspondence with the strong line in the second place. Hexagram 4 rewards the person in charge who asks openly instead of pretending to know, which is the exact opposite of what the fifth place normally rewards.

Why does Hexagram 4 refuse to answer a question asked three times?

The Judgement of Hexagram 4 states that at the first oracle the answer is given, and that asking two or three times is importunity, which receives nothing. Hexagram 4 is the teaching hexagram, so it sets the terms of teaching. Re-asking changes the act from consulting into shopping for a preferred answer, and a student who does that has stopped learning from the teacher and started auditioning them.

What hexagram does Hexagram 4 become when all six lines change?

When every line of Hexagram 4, Youthful Folly, changes, it becomes Hexagram 49, Revolution, which is Lake above Fire. The four yielding lines become firm and the two firm lines yield, so the students turn into the ones with authority and the teacher loses it. Hexagram 49 is the structural far side of Meng: what happens when instruction is refused or held on too long.

What should you actually do after receiving Hexagram 4?

After receiving Hexagram 4, Youthful Folly, identify who already knows what you do not, ask them one clear question, and then act on the answer rather than collecting further opinions. Accept a structure or method for now, in line with the discipline of six at the beginning, and set the point at which those rules come off. If you are the experienced one in the situation, wait to be asked instead of pushing instruction on anyone.