The Cunning Code

Chaps, you’ll have to excuse me for a few paragraphs but I’m going to talk about underwear. You have been warned.

As every woman knows, unless you can be described as having a chest like two peas on an ironing board, wearing a good bra is essential. A good bra turns a mediocre outfit into a stunning outfit, it makes you and your body look amazing. A bad bra can make you look older, saggy and dis-proportioned not to mention being uncomfortable and giving your a bad back and neck pains which can develop into long term problems that don’t go away when you unhook at the end of the day.

But more important than making you look good and function properly, a good bra makes you feel good. You know you’re looking your best, you’re going in the right direction, figurately and, well, literally.

And where do the pants come in? Well, they match the bra of course. They complement it, you know which bra goes with which pants because they match.

So what has this all got to do with managing your life you ask? We’re here to improve our lives, not for underwear advice.

It’s a metaphor. Get the foundations right and what you build on them will be better than what it is on it’s own. You feel more confident about your foundations so you stop worrying about them and concentrate on the top layer - which is what the client sees.

Take programming - most programmers / development teams have foundation classes they have written - frameworks and so on - that they build their applications on top of, if these foundations are shakey the programmer will never have full confidence in the application. How ever good the top layers are, if you’re not happy about the underneath parts what’s the point?

Imagine a world class builder building a magnificent structure with sub-standard bricks. The house wouldn’t look good, the builder and owners would not be confident in it so could not relax and use it for its purpose (living in) properly and you would eventually get long term problems - just like wearing a bad bra.

Back to the pants metaphor - have you ever seen control pants? From the outside you look pretty amazing, you feel good about how you look, but when you take that dress off you’re faced with yards and yards of elastic, and under that, fat. Your foundations are not right and you’re just covering them up. Now there’s nothing wrong with that if we’re just talking about pants, but what if we’re talking about your kitchen? Have you packed all the spare parts of your kitchen gagets into a large box and put it at the back of hte cupboard? Yes your cupboard looks tidy but open that box to find your whisk attatchement and you’re right back to where you started - cluttered.

Would you ever go straight to secondary school without going to pre-school and primary school first? No, you need that foundation of knowledge, if your brain was a bust, what ever education you get before the stage your at now are the under wires… I’m taking this metaphor too far now, but what I’m trying to say is this - Get the foundations right and you have the support and confidence to concentrate on the next stage - the one that makes the impact.

p.s. if you’re in Reading, Berkshire - go to Pudding for lingerie,