Advanced Exaggeration

Whenever people make an argument and have to state a number or an amount, and they are not sure about it exactly, they err on the side of exaggeration to make sure the argument remains somewhat strong.

The manner of exaggeration is always:

• an extremely high number; which you hope won't be topped or countered. It's like in poker when you go All-In with aces high on the button. You'd hope the blinds don't have anything good, and hope the aggressive bet keeps them from moving against you - which is why you should counter such an argument with an even higher number...
• a somewhat exaggerated number at the start of the argument, and then incrementally increase the number as the discussion moves along. "So at first I was fighting off five people for the last ticket to the U2 concert, and later on it was twenty, and at the end of the argument I beat out five hundred people for the right to smack Bono upside the head." - which makes it so ridiculous if you continue the argument yourself, and go incrementally higher. At some point the amount gets ridiculous, incredulous and silly... Just like poker, at some point re-raising upon re-raising is just pointless.
• exactly 80 percent (or the inverse 20 percent); even though whatever you're saying is nowhere close to either number. The illusion is that a percentage implies a part of the whole, which means obviously that your argument considered the whole, and thus you're a stud... which is an exaggeration. - So to counter this name a more exact percentage. 74 percent, 87 percent. It doesn't really matter what number, as long as it doesn't end in zero or five for that matter. Make up a source that's not easily referable, or has too many outlets to refer to. Reuters. AP. Oprah. Don't say however "The News", "The Government", "Them". That's just not exact enough. Also don't say the source is Gartner, because they will sue your ass for defamation.