devil's advocate

[Richard Stallman]

[[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider    ]]]
[[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies,     ]]]
[[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]]

I wish I had changed the subject line before, but better late than
never.

  > I disagree with Richard on this point, and I disagree with that essay.
  > IME, hearing devil's advocates is very important for cleansing my
  > ideas and thoughts, and for making good balanced decisions.

I think we are talking about two different practices.

As I explain in the article, people who are "playing devil's advocate"
are not trying to help you make a good decision; they are imitating
someone who is trying to fight you, to see what you would do under
attack.

They don't look for valid arguments; rather, they will say what they
they imagine your worst enemies would say.  That typically includes
fallacies, mistaken assumptions, and distorted goals -- because your
worst enemies would surely use those.

You're talking about people who sincerely want to help, and argue for
a different course of action using valid arguments, based on our real
goals.  That's not playing devil's advocate, they are honestly
disagreeing.

To find such arguments, they need to start with a sincere helpful
attitude.  When people do that, they can be very helpful.
That's totally different from playing devil's advocate.

  > in many rational organizations, the decision-making process requires
  > the participation of the so-called "red team", which plays the role of
  > an adversary ("devil") with the purpose of making the decisions sound
  > and sustainable.

I have never seen this in use.  Is the "red team" charged to look only
for valid and pertinent arguments for changing the plan?  Or is it
supposed to treat the question as a real fight, trying to defeat the
plan by hook or by crook, and cheer if the plan is stopped?

-- 
Dr Richard Stallman (https://stallman.org)
Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project (https://gnu.org)
Founder, Free Software Foundation (https://fsf.org)
Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)