Author
Richard P. Feynman
1 reading card from 1 book · 1974.
1 card
Cargo Cult Science · 1974
What cannot be shown to a stranger did not happen, as far as the audit is concerned.
Feynman's 1974 line describes, without meaning to, why management systems ask for documented information. Not because paper has value in itself, but because one's own memory is the most indulgent auditor anyone has. A process everyone agrees simply works that way cannot be contradicted by anything; a written process can be compared with what actually happened. From this come the two halves of the discipline: write what you do and do what you write. The first alone produces a shelf of procedures nobody follows, and every deviation becomes a nonconformity. The second alone produces good practice that cannot be demonstrated or handed on. Objective evidence is an artefact with a date, an author and content someone else can verify: a log, an approval, a test result, an attendance list. What cannot be shown to a stranger did not happen, as far as the audit is concerned.
“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself—and you are the easiest person to fool.”