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Golden hammer

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"♫♬If I had a hammer…"[1]
Cogito ergo sum
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v -t -e
“”If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
—Aphorism[2]

Agolden hammer isthe luxury version of Maxwell's silver hammer acognitive bias that occurs when youpropose the same, simple solution (or type of solution) to every problem.

Contents

Alternate names[edit]

  • Baruch's Observation
  • Maslow's hammer
  • Kaplan's hammer
  • Birmingham screwdriver
  • Law of the hammer
  • Law of the instrument
  • Persimplex responsum
  • "Cookie cutter solution" is themanagement speak version.

Etymology[edit]

The name comes fromAbraham Maslow's 1966 statement:

“”I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.

An earlier (yet less famous) quote comes fromAbraham Kaplan's 1964 statement:

“”I call it thelaw of the instrument, and it may be formulated as follows: Give a small boy a hammer, and he will find that everything he encounters needs pounding.

Problem[edit]

Essentially, not everything is a nail; no solution can fix every problem. There's always the possibility that we just haven't built a big enough hammer yet, though.But not for lack of trying.

Examples[edit]

See also[edit]

Want to read this in another language?[edit]

Русскоязычным вариантом данной статьи является статьяОшибка золотого молота

External links[edit]

References[edit]

v -t -e
Articles aboutlogical fallacies
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Formal fallacies: Confusion of the inverse • Denying the antecedent • Non sequitur • Affirmative conclusion from a negative premise • Not even wrong • Chewbacca Defense • Affirming a disjunct • Illicit process • Four-term fallacy • Negative conclusion from affirmative premises • Fallacy fallacy • Substituting explanation for premise • Enthymeme • Syllogism • Formal fallacy • Existential assumption • Masked man fallacy • Self-refuting idea • Argument by gibberish • One single proof • Affirming the consequent • False dilemma • Conjunction fallacy •
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Conditional fallacies: Slippery slope • What's the harm (logical fallacy) • Special pleading • Conditional fallacy • On the spot fallacy • Appeal to the minority • Argumentum ad populum • Galileo gambit • Professor of nothing •
 Genetic fallacies: Genetic fallacy •
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  Ad hominem: Ad iram • Argumentum ad cellarium • Bulverism • Poisoning the well • Blaming the victim • Tu quoque • Whataboutism • Nutpicking • Jonanism • Demonization • Shill gambit • Appeal to bias • Fallacy of opposition • Association fallacy • Damning with faint praise • Pathos gambit • Appeal to identity • Argumentum ad hominem • Nazi analogies • Not an argument • Nothing to hide • Scapegoat • 地下室论证 •
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