the fallacy of gurumanning

not sure if this already has a fallacy name, but if there isn’t one let’s go with Gurumanning.

— someone looks to some source of highly advanced wisdom from enigmatic masters on a topic that is originally quite specific (sun tzu’s “art of war”, machiavelli’s “the prince”, something to do with navy SEALs)

— someone takes the most broadened, diluted version of that advice and applies it to 21st century layperson problems

— in order to make the wisdom to apply to everyday life the person diluting it needs to remove the nuance and circumstantial details that make it so advanced in the first place; they remove the critical “if->then”, “except when” and “unless” conditionals that make expertise distinct from platitudes.

— the master’s teachings are now saying very little, when in original form they were saying a lot.

this in effect a strawman by simplification, but is done under an accompanying mood and niche that is unique enough to I think warrant its own term.