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+# Common Patterns and Pitfalls
+
+This reference catalogs frequently encountered patterns in documents and common analytical pitfalls to avoid.
+
+## Document Patterns
+
+### Persuasive Techniques to Recognize
+
+**Authority Appeals:**
+- Pattern: "As [expert/company] does..."
+- Watch for: Cherry-picked examples, ignoring context differences
+- Question: Does their context match yours?
+
+**Bandwagon Effects:**
+- Pattern: "Everyone is moving to..."
+- Watch for: Exaggeration of adoption, ignoring failures
+- Question: What's the actual evidence? Who's not adopting and why?
+
+**Complexity Hiding:**
+- Pattern: "Simply do X" or "Just Y"
+- Watch for: Downplaying difficulty, ignoring prerequisites
+- Question: What's the real complexity? What could go wrong?
+
+**False Dichotomies:**
+- Pattern: "Either X or Y"
+- Watch for: Missing middle ground, other alternatives
+- Question: What other options exist?
+
+**Survivorship Bias:**
+- Pattern: Success stories without failure context
+- Watch for: Missing information about what didn't work
+- Question: How many tried and failed? What's the selection bias?
+
+### Structural Patterns
+
+**Problem-Solution-Benefit:**
+- Common in tech blogs and marketing
+- Watch for: Problem exaggeration, solution oversimplification
+- Verify: Is problem real? Is solution complete?
+
+**Before-After:**
+- Common in retrospectives and case studies
+- Watch for: Overfitting to specific context, ignoring other factors
+- Verify: What else changed? Is causation clear?
+
+**Theory-Evidence-Conclusion:**
+- Common in academic and analytical writing
+- Watch for: Evidence cherry-picking, logical leaps
+- Verify: Is evidence representative? Does conclusion follow?
+
+## Analytical Pitfalls
+
+### Confirmation Bias
+
+**Pattern:** Looking for information that confirms existing beliefs
+
+**How it manifests:**
+- Focusing on supporting evidence while ignoring contradictions
+- Interpreting ambiguous information favorably
+- Remembering hits and forgetting misses
+
+**Counter-strategy:**
+- Actively seek disconfirming evidence
+- Steelman opposing views
+- Ask "What would prove me wrong?"
+
+### Dunning-Kruger Effect
+
+**Pattern:** Overestimating understanding of complex topics
+
+**How it manifests:**
+- Thinking you understand after superficial reading
+- Missing subtle complexities
+- Overconfidence in applying concepts
+
+**Counter-strategy:**
+- Try to teach it to someone
+- Attempt implementation
+- Identify what you don't know
+
+### Availability Heuristic
+
+**Pattern:** Overweighting easily recalled examples
+
+**How it manifests:**
+- Recent experiences seem more relevant
+- Vivid examples dominate thinking
+- Common cases seem universal
+
+**Counter-strategy:**
+- Seek statistical baselines
+- Look for quiet counterexamples
+- Question representativeness
+
+### Hindsight Bias
+
+**Pattern:** "I knew it all along" after seeing outcomes
+
+**How it manifests in retrospectives:**
+- Outcomes seem more inevitable than they were
+- Overlooking genuine uncertainty at decision time
+- Undervaluing decisions that happened to work out
+
+**Counter-strategy:**
+- What was known at decision time?
+- What uncertainties existed?
+- What could have gone differently?
+
+### Context Collapse
+
+**Pattern:** Ignoring contextual constraints and factors
+
+**How it manifests:**
+- "Why don't they just..."
+- Assuming your context matches author's
+- Missing organizational/cultural factors
+
+**Counter-strategy:**
+- Map explicit context: stack, scale, team, timeline
+- Identify implicit context: expertise, resources, constraints
+- Consider counter-factuals: what if context differed?
+
+## Content-Specific Patterns
+
+### Tech Blog Patterns
+
+**"Magic Solution" Pattern:**
+- Presents one approach as universal answer
+- Reality: Every approach has trade-offs
+- Ask: When does this NOT work?
+
+**"Works on My Machine" Pattern:**
+- Success in specific environment
+- Reality: May not generalize
+- Ask: What's special about this environment?
+
+**"Premature Optimization" Pattern:**
+- Complex solution to simple problem
+- Reality: Simpler approaches often sufficient
+- Ask: What's the simplest approach that works?
+
+### Retrospective Patterns
+
+**"Hero's Journey" Pattern:**
+- Obstacles → Struggles → Triumph
+- Reality: Often luck, timing, or missing context
+- Ask: What role did circumstances play?
+
+**"Lessons Learned" Pattern:**
+- Lists of takeaways
+- Reality: May be overgeneralized
+- Ask: What contexts do these apply to?
+
+**"If I Knew Then" Pattern:**
+- Advice from hindsight
+- Reality: Knowledge wasn't available then
+- Ask: What was actually knowable?
+
+### Technical Documentation Patterns
+
+**"Happy Path Only" Pattern:**
+- Documents ideal use cases
+- Reality: Edge cases and errors matter
+- Ask: What can go wrong?
+
+**"Assumes Expert" Pattern:**
+- Missing prerequisite knowledge
+- Reality: Users have varying backgrounds
+- Ask: What's assumed as known?
+
+**"Version Lag" Pattern:**
+- Documentation trails implementation
+- Reality: Features changed, docs didn't
+- Ask: Is this current? What changed?
+
+### Academic Paper Patterns
+
+**"Novel Technique" Pattern:**
+- Emphasizes novelty
+- Reality: May be incremental or narrow
+- Ask: What's genuinely new vs repackaged?
+
+**"Statistical Significance" Pattern:**
+- p < 0.05 therefore important
+- Reality: Statistical ≠ practical significance
+- Ask: What's the effect size? Does it matter?
+
+**"Future Work" Pattern:**
+- Lists limitations as future work
+- Reality: May indicate fundamental flaws
+- Ask: Are these minor gaps or major issues?
+
+## Red Flags
+
+Watch for these warning signs:
+
+**Credibility Issues:**
+- Anonymous or unclear authorship
+- No sources for bold claims
+- Credentials don't match domain
+- Conflicts of interest not disclosed
+
+**Methodological Issues:**
+- Unreproducible steps
+- Missing crucial details
+- Cherry-picked results
+- No discussion of alternatives
+
+**Logical Issues:**
+- Circular reasoning
+- False dichotomies
+- Correlation → causation
+- Generalizing from single case
+
+**Practical Issues:**
+- "Just trust me" explanations
+- Missing costs or trade-offs
+- Ignoring deployment challenges
+- Unrealistic assumptions
+
+## Strengthening Your Analysis
+
+### Build Reference Classes
+
+**Instead of single data point:**
+- How many have tried this?
+- What's the success rate?
+- What patterns exist across cases?
+
+### Seek Disconfirmation
+
+**Actively look for:**
+- Opposing viewpoints
+- Failure cases
+- Limitations and boundaries
+- Alternative explanations
+
+### Map Uncertainty
+
+**Identify what's:**
+- Known and verified
+- Assumed but reasonable
+- Speculative or uncertain
+- Unknown or missing
+
+### Consider Stakeholders
+
+**Ask who:**
+- Benefits from this framing?
+- Would disagree and why?
+- Isn't represented here?
+- Has conflicting incentives?
+
+## Meta-Patterns
+
+### Evolution of Ideas
+
+**Trace idea lineage:**
+- Where did this come from?
+- How has it evolved?
+- What criticisms emerged?
+- What's the current consensus?
+
+### Domain Transfer
+
+**When ideas cross domains:**
+- What gets lost in translation?
+- What analogies are imperfect?
+- What needs adaptation?
+
+### Zeitgeist Effects
+
+**Recognize current trends:**
+- What's fashionable now?
+- What pressures shape discourse?
+- What's being over/under-valued?
+- What will look different in 5 years?
+
+## Practical Guidelines
+
+**Before accepting claims:**
+1. Identify the evidence provided
+2. Consider alternative explanations
+3. Check for context dependency
+4. Assess generalizability
+5. Verify with other sources
+
+**Before applying ideas:**
+1. Map context similarities/differences
+2. Identify adaptation requirements
+3. Consider failure modes
+4. Start with small experiments
+5. Build feedback mechanisms
+
+**When uncertain:**
+1. State your uncertainties explicitly
+2. Identify what would resolve them
+3. Estimate confidence levels
+4. Plan validation steps
+5. Remain open to revision