Quotation
Last reviewed:
“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself—and you are the easiest person to fool.”
Richard Feynman · Thinkers beyond philosophy · Modern · 1974
What does it mean?
The first principle is not a social rule about catching other people's errors. It is that you are the easiest person for you to fool, so integrity starts there. The usual reading places the line in a warning about cargo-cult research, work that has the shape of science and not the honesty. A competing reading hears a sneer at outsiders, as if the principle were a weapon. He says that after you have not fooled yourself, ordinary honesty is enough not to fool other scientists. The sentence is in the 1974 address. You are the subject of the principle. The audience comes second.
Did Richard Feynman really say this?
The library’s label is Well attested. His own English, in the 1974 Caltech commencement address published as Cargo Cult Science. The dash is his. The talk was later reprinted in Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!
Where it comes from
Cargo Cult Science, Caltech commencement address, 1974
Approximate date: 1974.
How to use it
Before you send a confident note at work in Reading, ask which result you would rather not rerun. That preference is the fooling he means. A colleague's mistake is a later problem, and an easier one, on his account.
A mindset reading
The principle does not say you are always wrong. It says your own hope is the bias to budget for first. Other people's hopes are not the opening move.
Understand the philosophy
Cargo Cult Science is a commencement address, not a paper with a theorem. The key term is scientific integrity, which he thinks is rarely taught as a course. The next card is the sentence that follows: once you are not fooling yourself, not fooling others is ordinary honesty. The Character of Physical Law supplies the test he thinks the honesty is for.
- knowledge
- mind
- self
FAQ
What does it mean?
The first principle is not a social rule about catching other people's errors. It is that you are the easiest person for you to fool, so integrity starts there. The usual reading places the line in a warning about cargo-cult research, work that has the shape of science and not the honesty. A competing reading hears a sneer at outsiders, as if the principle were a weapon. He says that after you have not fooled yourself, ordinary honesty is enough not to fool other scientists. The sentence is in the 1974 address. You are the subject of the principle. The audience comes second.
Did Richard Feynman really say this?
Well attested. His own English, in the 1974 Caltech commencement address published as Cargo Cult Science. The dash is his. The talk was later reprinted in Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!
Which work is it in?
Cargo Cult Science, Caltech commencement address, 1974 Approximate date: 1974.