The following appeared as part of an article in a business magazine."A recent study rating 300 male and female Mentian advertising executives according to the average number of hours they sleep per night showed an association between the amount of sleep t

The author of this analytical piece asserts that those executives who need not more than 6 hours of sleep per night, are more successful. To substantiate the assertion, the author refers to the survey which took place on 300 male and female. The author ended up with conclusion that company should hire only that people who need less than 6 hours sleep per night. Counterproductively, close scrutiny of the facts, the argument suffers from many fallacies. This argument is based on series of unsubstantiated assumptions and not persuasive as it stands.

First and foremost, this argument is based on assumption that, less than 6 hours of sleep per night of executives is the only reason responsible for their success. However, here the author has considered sleep of executives of night only. He does not give information about whether they(executives) took sleep in day or not. To compare the sleep of different people, we need to consider How many hours of sleep they want in all day. The author has to provide information regarding this to make his argument more convincing.

Secondly, The author assumed that the survey which took place on 300 male and female is sufficient evidence to draw this conclusion. However, 300 people does not represent majority. Also the author has not given information of how many male and female included in that survey. It is not necessary that sleep of male and female should be equal. Without this information, we cannot draw any conclusion in this case. Moreover, The author assumed that what executives reported is true. But, It is plausible that executives reported like this only to make impression on their boss. The author should have to take care of these factors before making a generalized opinion.

Finally, the author failed substantiate his critical assumption that if company hires people who need sleep less than 6 hours per night, then their business will surely prosper. Because what applies to other executives will also apply to each and every person? But are all people comparable? The author need to provide answer to this type of questions which can make his argument more convincing.

Therefore, the author's argument is not cogent enough to lead to this proposed prescription. The outcome of denying any one of the primary assumptions is an invalid conclusion. The author's argument will become more admissible if he provides specific information discussed above.