Three Logical Fallacies: 10 Evidence-Based Coaching Practices
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Three Logical Fallacies, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Practices that may help
- The Narrative Fallacy: Why We Can’t Stop Making Stories
The narrative fallacy, named by Nassim Taleb in The Black Swan, is the tendency to construct coherent, causal stories from sequences of events — and then to mistake the story for the underlying reality. Narratives feel explanatory because they are causal and emotionally coherent, but they systematically underweight randomness, omit disconfirming details, and create false predictability. The bias is real and well-grounded theoretically; its practical importance is high wherever decisions depend on forecasting or learning from the past. - Surface and test underlying assumptions
Identify the implicit assumptions that your reasoning depends on and test whether they hold.
Socratic Questioning - Use two-sided messages with a sophisticated audience
Acknowledge the strongest objection, then refute it — this is more persuasive than ignoring it.
Elaboration Likelihood Model, Made Practical - Rate the strength of each logical link
Assign a confidence to each "supports" or "rebuts" link, not just to the conclusion.
Argument Mapping - The Ludic Fallacy: When You Mistake Real Life for a Game
The ludic fallacy, named by Nassim Taleb in The Black Swan, is the mistake of applying the logic of well-defined games (known rules, bounded outcomes, stable probabilities) to domains where those assumptions do not hold — most of real life. The fallacy matters because standard risk models built on game-like distributions systematically underestimate the frequency and magnitude of extreme, unexpected events. This is Taleb’s analytical concept; the supporting evidence is largely observational and historical rather than from controlled experiments. - Test each component probability separately
Before judging a joint claim, estimate each element on its own, then check whether the conjunction is lower.
The Conjunction Fallacy — When "More Details" Feels More Likely - Question whether the category you’re reasoning from actually fits
Before applying a model or framework, verify that the category it was built on genuinely matches your situation.
The Ludic Fallacy: When You Mistake Real Life for a Game - Separate the argument from the arguer
Address the claim on its merits, not the person’s motives or character.
Productive Disagreement, Made Practical - Group supporting ideas into mutually exclusive, collectively exhaustive buckets
Organize your three to five supporting points so they don’t overlap and together cover the argument completely (MECE).
The Minto Pyramid Principle - Add the strongest objection to every major supporting reason
For each supporting reason, find the best counter and put it on the map.
Argument Mapping
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- My conclusion feels airtight and yet something nags at me, and I think it’s that the whole thing only holds if a couple of unspoken things are true
- There’s one obvious hole in my case and I keep wanting to just not mention it
- The case feels solid because I’ve got several decent reasons stacked up, but I keep ignoring that the whole thing actually hinges on one shaky step I’ve never checked
- When two things fit together neatly in my head, I treat the whole package as more likely than either piece alone
- I’m reaching for a framework that worked great somewhere else and dropping it onto this situation, and a part of me isn’t sure the two cases are actually the same kind of thing underneath
Related concerns
- Formal Logical Fallacies
Identify the implicit assumptions that your reasoning depends on and test whether they hold.
Surface and test underlying assumptions
- Logical Fallacies Handout
The ludic fallacy, named by Nassim Taleb in The Black Swan, is the mistake of applying the logic of well-defined games (known rules, bounded outcomes, stable probabilities) to domains where those assumptions do not hold — most of real life. The fallacy matters because standard risk models built on game-like distributions systematically underestimate the frequency and magnitude of extreme, unexpected events. This is Taleb’s analytical concept; the supporting evidence is largely observational and historical rather than from controlled experiments.
- Logical Fallacies And Critical Thinking
Identify the implicit assumptions that your reasoning depends on and test whether they hold.
- Logical Fallacies Critical Thinking
The ludic fallacy, named by Nassim Taleb in The Black Swan, is the mistake of applying the logic of well-defined games (known rules, bounded outcomes, stable probabilities) to domains where those assumptions do not hold — most of real life. The fallacy matters because standard risk models built on game-like distributions systematically underestimate the frequency and magnitude of extreme, unexpected events. This is Taleb’s analytical concept; the supporting evidence is largely observational and historical rather than from controlled experiments.
- Logical Fallacies Exercises
The ludic fallacy, named by Nassim Taleb in The Black Swan, is the mistake of applying the logic of well-defined games (known rules, bounded outcomes, stable probabilities) to domains where those assumptions do not hold — most of real life. The fallacy matters because standard risk models built on game-like distributions systematically underestimate the frequency and magnitude of extreme, unexpected events. This is Taleb’s analytical concept; the supporting evidence is largely observational and historical rather than from controlled experiments.
- Logical Fallacies In Arguments
Address the claim on its merits, not the person’s motives or character.
Separate the argument from the arguer
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