The Devil's Advocate
I do some lawyering for Old Nick on the side, I'll admit. It's interesting, fun, at times controversial - and I love controversy and argument - and hey, even Satan himself has a right to legal representation. What I'm talking about is playing devil's advocate - picking holes in others' grand visions. It doesn't sound like the nicest thing in the world, because playing devil's advocate is, at root, about criticising things, and our society doesn't like criticism, or indeed anything remotely destructive - even if that criticism is necessary. This article is mainly about something called the 10 Faces of Innovation, otherwise known as marketese with the obligatory grain of truth and even more obligatory bushel of bullshit. I wouldn't even have paid it any attention, were it not for how much it hates devil's advocates. Apparently they discourage innovation by making people think negatively of new ideas. I say this to the detractors of the devil...