Decomposition Fallacy

A fallacy is a shortcut with a pothole in it. Decomposition Fallacy is one of the busier potholes on the road of reasoning.

Once you can name this fallacy, you will hear it everywhere — in advertisements, in debates, in your own head at 2 a.m. Do not despair. Hearing it is the beginning of escaping it.

Ask any student of classical music. Ten years of scales before the first real improvisation. The shortcut generation finds this offensive; the tanpura is unmoved.

Learning is the one wealth that survives every partition of fortune. That is all. A small tool, honestly kept, beats a large one admired.