An Ever Expanding List of Logical Fallacies

In an attempt to better understand the world around me, I have come up with five of my own logical fallacies that help me read, understand, and interpret the information that I need to analyze to be an informed person.

1. Futuristic fallacy: The belief that the future will be different from the past in every way “just because it will be”. Change, like every other action, needs precedent, and some things will not change in the future because there will be no need for it changing. Vice versa is also true.
2. Averages: Averages are often misleading because they do not tell the full story of the set. For instance, in a room of 19 high school students, the average net worth  is probably near zero. If we added Jeff Bezos as the 20th member of that set, the average net worth would go up several hundred million dollars, even though the prospects of some randomly selected person being worth several hundred million dollars is 0% (because nobody is worth the average). Situations like the hypothetical I just described happen all the time.
3. Interpretation fallacy: The belief that because one agrees with something (whether it be a religion, political philosophy, book, etc.), they must necessarily agree with the speaker’s interpretation of the something. This happens often in religious circles, where someone will make an extrapolation from the Bible and then say “It’s in the Bible, so you have to believe it.”
4. Groupthink/Diversity fallacy: Having all the minds one can get to think about a problem is a great thing to do, because many perspectives can be obtained through this process. The problem arises when all of the individuals begin to think in the same way because of social pressure, geographical closeness, or ideological alignment. Often, people assume that large numbers of “different” people will ensure differences of opinion and thought. This is not necessarily the case because these individuals can all think in the same way to gain social acceptance or at least not speak out about their true beliefs. In fact, this fallacy often leads to people thinking the same, with the groupthink being a part of the group’s identity. This often happens in investment circles, Silicon Valley, and in colleges.
5. Copycat fallacy: The belief that mimicking someone or something will give one the same results as the other “thing”. The conditions that allowed for success in that particular domain for that particular entity at that particular time may not exist for the individual seeking the same success now. For instance, one cannot just “copy” Bill Gates to gain his wealth; he gained his wealth in large part because of the conditions that surrounded him at the time, conditions that no longer exist now.
6. Originality Fallacy: The belief that our ideas are somehow endemic to us, even if we came up with them alone. A lot of our conceptions of reality has to do with how we perceive ourselves relative to others in society. Ideas are also inspired by gender, socioeconomic status, and intellectual capabilities. If perceptions are controlled for, those who perceive themselves in similar ways often have similar thoughts and ideas, though they may not familiar with each other.
7. Helping Fallacy: The belief that danger should be prevented or extremely mitigated by a central body rather than dealt with on an individual level. This is a logical fallacy because there is no precedent for preventing danger on a greater scale than the individual. The individual is responsible for their own success, why could they not then be responsible for their own failure? The helping fallacy allows weak systems and poor designs to proliferate across the set until a complete collapse occurs where no help can be given to the weak . This can be described in the statement “Robbing the rich to give to the poor” although it is more accurately described as “punishing the smart for not being dumb enough”.
8. Cyclical Fallacy: The belief that joining everyone else in doing something will lead to economic benefits, when in fact going on the future of the cycle is the more profitable move. For instance, several students from top tier schools go into finance, hoping to make a lot of money. The competition for each dollar in the industry, however, is dampened by the entrance of more people, and because people extrapolate from the past, more and more people will enter an industry that cannot handle them. The most lucrative companies for a product are often the first few (Microsoft, Apple, Coca-Cola, Quantum Fund, Vanguard, etc.).
9. First Move Fallacy: The belief that the faster and the better moves are made earlier, the better off a company will be. For instance, if a company comes out with their version of a product first, they should gain the upper edge. This fallacy does not stand up against scrutiny, simply because there are lots of reasons not to launch first. One, the company who is “behind” can learn from the mistakes of the other competitors by tracking their performance. Two, the first version is also the worst version, so companies who are slow often have the advantage of releasing a product that is vastly superior to their competitors, thus gaining them recognition and acclaim in their particular market. Three, companies who launch more slowly are often likely to make less mistakes in other areas than the product, because they can focus on the areas that make a company successful (marketing, finance, hiring, PR, etc.) rather than just focusing on the product.
10. Cognition Fallacy: The belief that memory in any form is reliable as evidence. This is not just limited to human memory, which alters itself every day, but electronic memory, which can be manipulated, damaged, or glitch, showing an entirely different story than what actually happened.