Richard Feynman

Caltech, 1974, "Cargo Cult Science" Richard Feynman's address reads as well on the page as any essay. He describes South Sea islanders who built fake runways and control huts after the war, hoping the planes would return, and uses them to skewer research that copies the form of science without its substance. The idea to keep is his first principle: you must not fool yourself, "and you are the easiest person to fool." His call for an integrity that leans over backwards, reporting whatever might prove you wrong, applies far beyond a laboratory, to any job where honesty is inconvenient.