However, we don't always have that luxury and can sometimes find ourselves needing to defend a point of view.
If this happens, here are 15 logical fallacies to avoid:
If you want to win an argument, don't make these mistakes:
However, we don't always have that luxury and can sometimes find ourselves needing to defend a point of view.
If this happens, here are 15 logical fallacies to avoid:
Using a personal experience or an isolated example to try and prove a point instead of empirical or more compelling evidence.
Humans tend to believe and relate to stories, but don't fall into this trap.
What's true for you isn't always true.
Likely: Incorrectly assuming that just because something is possible means that it is likely.
Plausible: Incorrectly assuming that just because something is plausible means that it is true.
Involves presenting a circular argument where the conclusion is included in the premise.
Examples:
1/ "Of course smoking causes cancer. The smoke from cigarettes is a carcinogen."
2/ "Circular reasoning is bad mostly because it's not very good."
Incorrectly assuming the probability of A happening given that B has happened to be about the same as the probability of B given A.
Example: Terrorists tend to have an engineering background; so, engineers have a tendency towards terrorism.
Nope, not the case.
Believing or starting that, "since event Y followed event X, event Y must have been caused by event X."
"The rooster crows immediately before sunrise; therefore the rooster causes the sun to rise."
Correlation does not equal causation.
Thinking that two things are morally equivalent when they're not.
For example, thinking that racist language and an assault have the same severity.
No. One is an act of violence while the other is words.
Different wrongful conduct has different severity.
Using a double meaning or ambiguity of language to mislead or misrepresent the truth.
"Sure philosophy helps you argue better, but do we really need to encourage people to argue? There's enough hostility in this world."
Politicians are often guilty of this fallacy.
A deliberate diversion from a relevant or important question.
John: It's morally wrong to lie to your spouse, why on earth did you do that?
Steve: But what is morality exactly?
John: It’s a code of conduct shared by cultures.
Steve: But who creates this code?
Claiming that a compromise, or 'middle ground', between two extremes must be the truth of a matter.
Sometimes a thing is simply untrue and a compromise of it is also untrue.
Half way between truth and a lie, is still a lie.
Cherry picking data to suit your argument, or finding a pattern to fit a presumption.
Named after a Texan firing gunshots at a barn, then painting a shooting target around the tightest cluster of hits and claiming to be a sharpshooter.
Claiming an appeal to 'purity' to dismiss another argument.
Person A: "No Scotsman puts sugar on his porridge."
Person B: "But my uncle Angus is a Scotsman and he puts sugar on his porridge."
Person A: "But no true Scotsman puts sugar on his porridge."
Claiming something is good or bad on the basis of where it came from, or from whom it came.
It's the belief that the origin of something determines its worth.
Example: "The news article is a conservative publication, so you know whatever it says is true."
Presenting negative information that is irrelevant before presenting an argument, which makes that argument, or person, seem untrustworthy.
"Before you listen to what he has to say, may I remind you that he has been in jail."
Also called a smear tactic.
A type of appeal to emotion.
It's an argument that attempts to prove a premise true or false because the consequences of it being true or false are desirable or undesirable.
The desirability of a premise's consequence does not make it true or false.
Claiming that because an authority or someone of status thinks something, it therefore must be true.
Authority or status holds no bearing upon whether claims are true or not.
Assess the argument, not the origin of the argument.
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If you want to win an argument, don't make these mistakes:
— Alex Brogan (@_alexbrogan) July 20, 2022
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1/ Some initial thoughts on personal moats:
Like company moats, your personal moat should be a competitive advantage that is not only durable—it should also compound over time.
Characteristics of a personal moat below:
2/ Like a company moat, you want to build career capital while you sleep.
As Andrew Chen noted:
3/ You don’t want to build a competitive advantage that is fleeting or that will get commoditized
Things that might get commoditized over time (some longer than
4/ Before the arrival of recorded music, what used to be scarce was the actual music itself — required an in-person artist.
After recorded music, the music itself became abundant and what became scarce was curation, distribution, and self space.
5/ Similarly, in careers, what used to be (more) scarce were things like ideas, money, and exclusive relationships.
In the internet economy, what has become scarce are things like specific knowledge, rare & valuable skills, and great reputations.
Like company moats, your personal moat should be a competitive advantage that is not only durable—it should also compound over time.
Characteristics of a personal moat below:
I'm increasingly interested in the idea of "personal moats" in the context of careers.
— Erik Torenberg (@eriktorenberg) November 22, 2018
Moats should be:
- Hard to learn and hard to do (but perhaps easier for you)
- Skills that are rare and valuable
- Legible
- Compounding over time
- Unique to your own talents & interests https://t.co/bB3k1YcH5b
2/ Like a company moat, you want to build career capital while you sleep.
As Andrew Chen noted:
People talk about \u201cpassive income\u201d a lot but not about \u201cpassive social capital\u201d or \u201cpassive networking\u201d or \u201cpassive knowledge gaining\u201d but that\u2019s what you can architect if you have a thing and it grows over time without intensive constant effort to sustain it
— Andrew Chen (@andrewchen) November 22, 2018
3/ You don’t want to build a competitive advantage that is fleeting or that will get commoditized
Things that might get commoditized over time (some longer than
Things that look like moats but likely aren\u2019t or may fade:
— Erik Torenberg (@eriktorenberg) November 22, 2018
- Proprietary networks
- Being something other than one of the best at any tournament style-game
- Many "awards"
- Twitter followers or general reach without "respect"
- Anything that depends on information asymmetry https://t.co/abjxesVIh9
4/ Before the arrival of recorded music, what used to be scarce was the actual music itself — required an in-person artist.
After recorded music, the music itself became abundant and what became scarce was curation, distribution, and self space.
5/ Similarly, in careers, what used to be (more) scarce were things like ideas, money, and exclusive relationships.
In the internet economy, what has become scarce are things like specific knowledge, rare & valuable skills, and great reputations.
