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 th

In this argument, the author concludes that if a businessman wants to prosper, he should hire only people who need less than 6 hours of sleep per night.

First, the author has tired to reach this conclusion by pointing out a recent study about the relationship between success and the hours of sleep per night, but this argument has failed to see some significant factors. Absent evidence to warrant this deduction, it is entirely possible that the higher success rate is attribute to other reasons. People in the company might study several hours after the work, so they go to sleep late. The real reason why they success is because of their effort rather than sleep less. Hence, the author overlooked the rationale why they success.

Secondly, by analyzing the conclusion of this argument, we can find some flaws to reject it. The argument fails to consider other possible factor for their profit. If they hire people who sleep less than 6 hours, the employees might suffer some health problems that come from the lack of sleep. The businessman might to cost more for their frequent sick leave. Thus, considering the whole situation, the businessman may not get higher profit from hiring people sleep less.

Finally, there remain doubts that render the author’s whole reasoning logically flawed. To be more specific, the survey methodology might be problematic in several respects. The argument fails to consider other possible options for the reason why th firm can get success. We cannot just use a statistical data to confirm a trend because the trend might mislead us. Following the conclusion, the businessman might hire someone really sleeps little but works still badly.

In sum, the argument not only is logically unsound but also relies on several doubtful assumptions.