It's not clear to me that this is a counterexample. Ayn Rand's fiction strikes me as mediocre in general, but what strength it has seems to flow from following this principle.
[edit]I seem to have misread the parent, and am agreeing with it.
At least one of us is misreading the other's comment: I was suggesting Rand's fiction as a counterexample to
villains start with some great scheme to do something awesome (...) The hero - if you're doing this poorly - sits at home and just waits
which seems to agree with, not be contradicted by, your "flow[s] from following this principle".
Another month, another rationality quotes thread. The rules are: