Be Consistent
I had an email from a reader of the first edition of this book,
who pointed out that an example I gave in one of the Rules in
this book was in breach of another Rule. Nope, I’m not going
to tell you which one. You’ll have to work it out for yourself
like he did.
In my defense, I’d like to point out that this means I was fol-
lowing the Rule about not being perfect. However, there’s no
denying that the reader in question had me figured out and, as
he observed (very politely I must say), it’s important to be
consistent.
Well, I’ve never been arrogant (or stupid) enough to claim that
I never break any of the Rules. After all, they’re Rules that I
know work from observing other people, not a list of personal
preferences. So I try to follow them as closely as I can, and the
older I get the more often I get, it right. But that’s not the same
as always.
However, we certainly should aim to be consistent about fol-
lowing whatever Rules we decide to live by (the ones in this
book and/or any others). There’s no point in choosing a path if
you’re just going to wander off it at whim.
I find that my children are a big help here*. (If you don’t have
kids, you’ll have to work that bit harder to identify your own
inconsistencies.) If you’re debating a point of disagreement
with the children (yes, that is indeed a euphemism), you can
rely on them to draw your attention to any inconsistencies in
your line of argument, or indeed any inconsistencies between
what you’re telling them now and what you did yourself
- See! I always knew they’d come in handy for something.