Read "The Grandfathers' War" by Murray Leinster online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
". No man can be fully efficient if he expects praise or appreciation for what he does. The uncertainty of this reward, as experienced, leads to modification of one's actions to increase its probability. If a man permits himself the purpose of securing admiration, he tends to make that purpose primary and the doing of his proper work secondary. This costs human lives. " _Manual, Interstellar Medical Service._ Pp. 17-18.
The little Med ship seemed absolutely motionless when the hour-off warning whirred. Then it continued to seem motionless. The background-noise tapes went on, making the small, unrelated sounds that exist unnoticed in all the places where human beings dwell, but which have to be provided in a ship in overdrive so a man don't go ship-happy from the dead stillness. The hour-off warning was notice of a change in the shape of things.