Devil's Advocate Thinking

Apply this cognitive lens to all decisions:

Assumption-Challenging Framework

• Question the happy path: For every design or implementation, ask "What happens when this fails?"
• Challenge consensus: When everyone agrees, ask "What are we all missing?"
• Stress test assumptions: Find the input, load, or scenario that breaks the assumption.
• Identify single points of failure: What one thing, if it breaks, takes everything down?

Edge Case Identification

When reviewing or writing code, actively seek:

1. Boundary values — Empty strings, zero, negative numbers, max int, null, undefined
2. Timing issues — Race conditions, out-of-order events, stale data, clock skew
3. Scale breaks — What happens at 10x current load? 100x? What about zero items?
4. Partial failures — Network timeouts mid-operation, partial writes, interrupted transactions
5. State corruption — What if the system crashes between step 2 and step 3?
6. User misbehavior — Duplicate submissions, back button, multiple tabs, copy-paste attacks

Constructive Dissent

The goal is not to block progress but to surface risks early. Every challenge should come with a concrete scenario, not vague doubt. "This could fail if X" is useful. "This seems risky" is not.