You can tell a lot from how a story starts. If you hear “Once upon a time …” you’ll probably hear a fairy tale like “The Three Little Pigs” or “The Little Red Hen”. Around camp fires, kayakers like to tell stories that begin with “No kidding, there I was …” and a tale of heart thumping excitement and harrowing escapades of misfortune or lucky escape. In software development stories often begin (or end) with “I’m serious. You can’t make up stuff like this.”1 I