Idiots understanding the scientific method is the myth.

A website called Understanding Science offers an “interactive representation” of the scientific method that at first looks familiar. It includes circles labeled “Exploration and Discovery” and “Testing Ideas.” But there are others named “Benefits and Outcomes” and “Community Analysis and Feedback,” both rare birds in the world of the scientific method. To make matters worse, arrows point every which way. Mouse over each circle and you find another flowchart with multiple categories and a tangle of additional arrows.

So basically his argument is, "That diagram is confusing, so the scientific method is a myth." I think he intentionally chose the least clear diagram he could find, because there are countless other diagrams that explain it much clearer, like this one

Even simplistic versions vary from three steps to eleven.

That's because many of the steps can be broken up into smaller steps, which is exactly what the diagram he linked to shows. For example, if you hover your mouse over the "Testing Ideas" section, it shows that testing and ideas consists of two things, gathering data and interpreting data, and each of those steps can also be broken down into smaller steps.

Some start with hypothesis, others with observation. Some include imagination. Others confine themselves to facts.

It doesn't matter if you start the process with a hypothesis or an observation, because it still has to go through the entire process.

Imagination can be used to come up with hypothesis, but it still has to go through the other steps, which includes checking the facts.

Easy to grasp, pocket-guide versions of the scientific method usually reduce to critical thinking, checking facts, or letting “nature speak for itself,” none of which is really all that uniquely scientific.

So it has to be unique to be valid? Well then, lets just throw out that critical thinking and fact checking and see where that gets us.

Most of his article is going on about how some people have misused the term over the years, or that not everyone follows the scientific method, and therefore the scientific method is a myth. That's just ridiculous. That's like saying feminism is a myth because some people who claim to be feminists are really just man-haters and have misused the term feminist.

This is the scientific method. The scientific method is at the very heart of science and is what helps scientists weed out truth from fiction. Without it science would just be a free-for-all where no critical thinking, fact checking or evidence is required.