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The soldiers arrived like gods.
During World War II, remote Pacific islanders watched in awe as foreign troops landed on their shores, bringing crates of food, medicine, and supplies, things the islanders had never seen before. The soldiers built airstrips, set up makeshift control towers, and went about their routines. Then, just as suddenly as they arrived, they vanished when the war ended, taking everything with them.
But the islanders had a plan.
Believing that the airstrips had summoned the cargo, they built their own, meticulously crafting bamboo control towers and wooden headphones, hoping the planes would return. They mimicked the rituals of the soldiers, waiting for the magic to happen.
But the planes never came back.
This is Cargo Cult Thinking, blindly copying surface-level behaviours while missing the deeper principles that drive success. And it’s more common than you think.
The rooster that crows in the morning doesn’t cause the sun to rise. Likewise, cajoling the rooster to crow earlier will not make the day longer.
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The Feynman Principle – Cargo Cult Science
Richard Feynman, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist, gave a speech titled “Cargo Cult Science” at Caltech in 1974 1 Richard P. Feynman, Cargo Cult Science (1974) – This is one of the best speeches you will ever read. . He used the analogy of the Pacific islanders which we read about in the introduction.
Feynman warned against cargo cult science, practices that mimic real science but lack rigour.
In his famous speech (here’s my breakdown of Richard Feynman’s Cargo Cult Science Speech), he stressed the need for honesty, scepticism, and critical thinking, urging scientists to challenge their own assumptions.
His message remains a timeless caution against superficial thinking, especially in an era of fake news and misinformation.
The first principle is that you must not fool yourself – and you are the easiest person to fool. So you have to be very careful about that. After you’ve not fooled yourself, it’s easy not to fool other scientists. You just have to be honest in a conventional way after that.
So we really ought to look into theories that don’t work, and science that isn’t science.
Richard Feynman, Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman
The term “cargo cult” has come under scrutiny recently, with some arguing that it fails to capture the full reality and reflects a Western bias. Nancy McDowell posits that the focus on “cargo” overlooks the broader social and cultural context in which these movements arise, including politics and economics. Instead, she suggests that the phenomenon is better understood as a response to sudden and dramatic change, which is expressed through the ideology of cargo cults 2 Ton Otto, What Happened to Cargo Cults? (2009) .
René Girard’s mimetic desire explains cargo cult thinking perfectly: people copy the visible traits of success, hoping to achieve the same results, without grasping the deeper principles that drive them.
Elizabeth Holmes and the Black Turtleneck
Cargo Cult Thinking has a prominent place in modern business thinking as well.
Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced CEO of Theranos, famously emulated the late Steve Jobs by wearing a black turtleneck. However, despite the initial success of Theranos, it became clear that Holmes and her team had mixed cause and effect, focusing more on the appearance of innovation and success than on actually creating a functional product. Wearing a black turtleneck doesn’t cause a company to succeed.
Cargo Cult Thinking in business is the way that companies often prioritize metrics over actual outcomes (📊). For instance, a sales team might focus on increasing the number of phone calls they make or emails they send, without considering whether those efforts are actually resulting in more sales. Similarly, a marketing team might prioritize increasing social media engagement, without considering whether that engagement is translating into increased sales or brand loyalty.
The Key Takeaway
Copying success without understanding its foundations is a dangerous mistake. True progress comes from grasping the principles behind success, not just mimicking its surface effects.
🧐 Understand the fundamentals – Don’t just copy what successful people do. Study why their strategies work and build your own approach.
🧪 Test your assumptions – Just because something worked before doesn’t mean it always will. Experiment, adapt, and challenge conventional wisdom.
🔍 Focus on what matters – Avoid vanity metrics and superficial signals. Measure progress based on real impact, not appearances.
The islanders built a bamboo runway, but the planes never returned. Cargo Cult Thinking leads to illusions of progress, not real results.
Don’t just copy. Think.
Other Articles
If you enjoyed this article, check out other articles on the Intellectual Master, Richard Feynman.
- Unearthing Wisdom from Feynman’s Cargo Cult Science Speech: Lessons for Better Decision-Making
- Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman: Why Curiosity is the Key to Mastery
Footnotes:
- 1Richard P. Feynman, Cargo Cult Science (1974) – This is one of the best speeches you will ever read.
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