In his fifth lesson, Minchin urged intellectual rigor — not just toward others' ideas, but especially toward your own. He told graduates to take their beliefs out onto the verandah and hit them with a cricket bat. He called on them to identify their biases, prejudices, and privileges, noting that most of society is kept alive by a failure to acknowledge nuance. He also made an impassioned case against the false dichotomy between arts and sciences, citing Twain, Douglas Adams, Vonnegut, and Shakespeare as proof that you don't have to be unscientific to make beautiful art, and you don't need to be superstitious to be a poet.