Golden hammer

	Part of the series on Logic and rhetoric
	Key articles
	Logical fallacy ; Syllogism ; Argument ;
	General logic
	Appeal to identity ; Genuine but insignificant cause ; Negative conclusion from affirmative premises ; Paraconsistent logic ; SeekFind ; What's the harm ;
	Bad logic
	Appeal to the minority ; Didit fallacy ; Moralistic fallacy ; Texas sharpshooter fallacy ; Uncertainty tactic ; Willful ignorance ; v - t - e

"♫♬If I had a hammer…"^[1]

“”If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

—^[1]

A golden hammer is ~~the luxury version of Maxwell's silver hammer~~ a logical fallacy that occurs when you propose the same, simple solution (or type of solution) to every problem.

[edit] Alternate names

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 the management speak version.

[edit] Etymology

The name comes from Abraham 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 from Abraham Kaplan's 1964 statement:

“”I call it the law 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.

[edit] Problem

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.

[edit] Examples

Every panacea
Goddidit and variants
Some flavors of libertarians view free market economics this way.
Conversely, many Communists treat the prospect of a planned economy with the same overconfidence.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

"Golden Hammer", The Free Dictionary
"Plurium interrogationum fallacy", The Autonomist

[edit] References

↑ https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/if_all_you_have_is_a_hammer,_everything_looks_like_a_nail

v - t - e Articles about logical fallacies
Informal fallacies:			Appeal to ancient wisdom • Appeal to mystery • Appeal to nature • Appeal to novelty • Appeal to probability • Appeal to tradition • Argument from morality • Argument from oh bloody hell that was years ago • Argumentum ad lunam • Argumentum ad martyrdom • Balance fallacy • Big words • Certum est quia impossibile est • Circular reasoning • Common sense • Due diligence • Escape to the future • Exception that proves the rule • Extended analogy • Flying carpet fallacy • Good old days • Hindsight bias • Hyperbole • Infinite regress • Informal fallacy • Media was wrong before • Mistaking the map for the territory • Moralistic fallacy • Morton's fork • My enemy's enemy • Naturalistic fallacy • Post-designation • Presentism • Relativist fallacy • Sanctioning the devil • Spider-Man fallacy • Sunk cost • Two wrongs make a right • Word magic •
	Ad hoc:		Ad hoc • Escape hatch • God of the gaps • Handwave • Moving the goalposts • Nirvana fallacy • No True Scotsman • PIDOOMA • Slothful induction • Special pleading •
	Arguments from ignorance:		Appeal to censorship • Argument from ignorance • Argument from incredulity • Argument from omniscience • Argument from silence • Holmesian fallacy • Science doesn't know everything • Science was wrong before • Toupee fallacy • Willful ignorance •
	Causation fallacies:		Causalation • Correlation does not imply causation • Counterfactual fallacy • Gambler's fallacy • Genuine but insignificant cause • Post hoc, ergo propter hoc • Regression fallacy • Wrong direction •
	Circular reasoning:		Appeal to faith • Argument by assertion • Argumentum ad dictionarium • Circular reasoning • Infinite regress • Self-refuting idea •
	Emotional appeals:		Appeal to confidence • Appeal to consequences • Appeal to fear • Appeal to flattery • Appeal to gravity • Appeal to hate • Appeal to money • Appeal to pity • Appeal to shame • Argumentum ad baculum • Argumentum ad fastidium • Deepity • Emotional appeal • Loaded language • Pathos gambit • Style over substance • Tone argument •
	Fallacies of ambiguity:		Continuum fallacy • Definitional fallacies • Equivocation • Etymology • Fallacy of accent • Fallacy of ambiguity • Fallacy of amphiboly • Illicit observation • Moral equivalence • Not as bad as • Phantom distinction • Quote mining • Scope fallacy • Suppressed correlative • Wronger than wrong •
Formal fallacies:			Affirmative conclusion from a negative premise • Affirming a disjunct • Affirming the consequent • Chewbacca Defense • Confusion of the inverse • Denying the antecedent • Enthymeme • Existential assumption • Fallacy fallacy • False dilemma • Formal fallacy • Four-term fallacy • Illicit process • Masked man fallacy • Negative conclusion from affirmative premises • Nemmeno sbagliato • Non sequitur • Not even wrong • Substituting explanation for premise • Syllogism •
Fallacious argument styles:			"I used to be an atheist" • Anti-environmentalism • Apophasis • Appeal to bias • Appeal to censorship • Argumentum ad nauseam • Bait-and-switch • Blaming the victim • Bullshit • Canard • Chewbacca Defense • DARVO • Danth's Law • Demonization • Escape hatch • Friend argument • Gish Gallop • Godwin's Law • Gore's Law • Greece-baiting • Ham Hightail • Intuition pump • Just asking questions • Leading question • Linking to authority • Loaded language • Loaded question • Lying by omission • Motte and bailey • Moving the goalposts • One-way hash argument • One single proof • Pink-baiting • Poisoning the well • Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur • Quote mining • Race card • Red-baiting • Red herring • Release the data • Scapegoat • Science was wrong before • Shill gambit • Silent Majority • Spurious rigor • Straw man • Style over substance • Terrorism-baiting • Uncertainty tactic • Weasel word • What's the harm • Whataboutism •
Conditional fallacies:			Conditional fallacy • On the spot fallacy • Slippery slope • Special pleading • What's the harm •
	Genetic fallacies:		Genetic fallacy •
		Appeals to authority:	Anonymous authority • Appeal to celebrity • Appeal to confidence • Appeal to identity • Appeal to the minority • Argument from authority • Argumentum ad populum • Galileo gambit • Invincible authority • Ipse dixit • Linking to authority • Professor of nothing • Silent Majority • Ultracrepidarianism •
		Ad hominem:	Ad iram • Appeal to bias • Argumentum ad cellarium • Argumentum ad hominem • Argumentum ad hominem (français) • Association fallacy • Blaming the victim • Bulverism • Damning with faint praise • Demonization • Fallacy of opposition • Jonanism • Nutpicking • Pathos gambit • Poisoning the well • Scapegoat • Shill gambit • Tu quoque • Whataboutism •
	Imprecision fallacies:		Anecdotal evidence • Apex fallacy • Appeal to fiction • Category mistake • Cherry picking • Confounding factor • Fallacy of accident • False analogy • Imprecision fallacy • Nutpicking • Overgeneralization • Overprecision • Pragmatic fallacy • Selection bias • Spotlight fallacy • Texas sharpshooter fallacy •
Valid logical methods:			Logical validity • Negative evidence •
Fallacy collections:			Fallacy Files • Nizkor Project • SeekFind • Your Logical Fallacy Is •

[0] ttps://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/if_all_you_have_is_a_hammer,_everything_looks_like_a_nail

[1]

Golden hammer

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[edit] Alternate names

[edit] Etymology

[edit] Problem

[edit] Examples

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[edit] External links

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