Understanding 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 Understanding Logical Fallacies, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Practices that may help
- Explicitly distinguish coherence from probability
A story can be internally consistent and still be rare — learn to separate "makes sense" from "likely."
The Conjunction Fallacy — When "More Details" Feels More Likely - 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 - Separate the argument from the arguer
Address the claim on its merits, not the person’s motives or character.
Productive Disagreement, Made Practical - 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 - Surface and test underlying assumptions
Identify the implicit assumptions that your reasoning depends on and test whether they hold.
Socratic Questioning - 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. - Evaluate the argument structure, not the source
Map the logic and evaluate it independently of who made the argument.
Argument Mapping - 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. - Rate the strength of each logical link
Assign a confidence to each "supports" or "rebuts" link, not just to the conclusion.
Argument Mapping - Surface the hidden premises
Find the unstated assumptions that the argument needs to work.
Argument Mapping
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- Because I can explain exactly why something would happen, I treat it as likely to happen
- There’s one obvious hole in my case and I keep wanting to just not mention it
- I notice I’m really arguing against this person
- 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
- 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
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 And Critical Thinking
Identify the implicit assumptions that your reasoning depends on and test whether they hold.
- Logical Fallacies And Reasoning Skills
For each supporting reason, find the best counter and put it on the map.
Add the strongest objection to every major supporting reason
- Logical Fallacies Cards
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 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 Guided Notes
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.
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