The critical thinking fallacy
Fri Jan 30 2026
Okay, now that we, over here at Masters of Influence, have recovered somewhat from the shootings we can dedicate some brain matter to critical thinking.
To get there imagine this scenario: a teacher says to a 6 year old and to a thirteen year old that when a feather hits a glass the glass breaks. Then the teacher asks each, what happens when a feather hits a glass.
A 6-year-old says “that’s stupid, feathers are soft.”
A 13-year-old says “the glass breaks.”
I saw this in a social media post. The original post demonstrated how thinking evolves as we mature. The post I saw mocked it: obviously education makes us stupider, we should all think like 6 year olds.
In fact the 13-year old in this scenario is demonstrating a higher level of thinking, more lateral thinking. Something like: sure I know that a feather, the way I understand it, won’t break glass, but if the rule is that a feather breaks glass then the answer to the question is that the glass will break. It’s an ability to step outside of what you think you know to look at something a different way.
The quick, emotional, social media, response to everything is the six year old response. It is an emotional reaction that considers no new information.
And it is almost always dressed up as common sense or logic.
But true logic, real common sense, allows for a feather to break the glass.
So in this episode we talk about when feathers can and should break glass, when you should consider the logical rules, when you should follow them and an even higher level of critical thinking: how to choose.
What you’ll hear:
0:00 - Experiments in psychology.
6:30 - When improvising will get you killed.
13:00 - Sully didn’t break the rules—he executed them perfectly under impossible conditions
18:00 - When critical thinking is dangerous vs. when it’s your only defense
27:00 - Who has the obligation to break the rules
33:00 - How manufactured discourse works and why you keep falling for it
38:00 - The cult mechanics of modern political loyalty
42:00 - Coming next: Your toolkit for detecting logical fallacies in real time
Join us, and let us know what you see in the world of critical thought.
Next time we’ll go into structures of logic and how to think critically.
Get full access to Masters of Influence at mastersofinfluence.substack.com/subscribe
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Okay, now that we, over here at Masters of Influence, have recovered somewhat from the shootings we can dedicate some brain matter to critical thinking. To get there imagine this scenario: a teacher says to a 6 year old and to a thirteen year old that when a feather hits a glass the glass breaks. Then the teacher asks each, what happens when a feather hits a glass. A 6-year-old says “that’s stupid, feathers are soft.” A 13-year-old says “the glass breaks.” I saw this in a social media post. The original post demonstrated how thinking evolves as we mature. The post I saw mocked it: obviously education makes us stupider, we should all think like 6 year olds. In fact the 13-year old in this scenario is demonstrating a higher level of thinking, more lateral thinking. Something like: sure I know that a feather, the way I understand it, won’t break glass, but if the rule is that a feather breaks glass then the answer to the question is that the glass will break. It’s an ability to step outside of what you think you know to look at something a different way. The quick, emotional, social media, response to everything is the six year old response. It is an emotional reaction that considers no new information. And it is almost always dressed up as common sense or logic. But true logic, real common sense, allows for a feather to break the glass. So in this episode we talk about when feathers can and should break glass, when you should consider the logical rules, when you should follow them and an even higher level of critical thinking: how to choose. What you’ll hear: 0:00 - Experiments in psychology. 6:30 - When improvising will get you killed. 13:00 - Sully didn’t break the rules—he executed them perfectly under impossible conditions 18:00 - When critical thinking is dangerous vs. when it’s your only defense 27:00 - Who has the obligation to break the rules 33:00 - How manufactured discourse works and why you keep falling for it 38:00 - The cult mechanics of modern political loyalty 42:00 - Coming next: Your toolkit for detecting logical fallacies in real time Join us, and let us know what you see in the world of critical thought. Next time we’ll go into structures of logic and how to think critically. Get full access to Masters of Influence at mastersofinfluence.substack.com/subscribe