If you’ve ever tried to untangle a complicated problem, at some point, you probably hit your head against the wall in frustration, veering into a boiling, diabolic rage. This anger is particularly acute for animators (or anyone who depends on a computer, for that matter).

What if you could use all these negative inclinations to your advantage? How about you try "playing Devil's advocate".

Playing Devil's advocate means taking an opposing position to an argument or point to explore things from a different perspective. You can use it to strengthen an idea by finding flaws and correcting them.

If you think about it, playing the Devil's advocate can be a powerful tool for simplifying complex ideas because you quickly find the flaws. Think about it like looking at the corners of a cube or the joints in a structure.

Or like finding the weak points in a game of Jenga:

Your objective when playing Jenga is to move your piece as safely as possible, right? Well, the Devil's advocate would say something like:

"Actually, your objective in Jenga is to sabotage the structure as much as possible to make someone else more likely to fail."

Both approaches are viable ways to "survive" the game of Jenga. Both are technically true, but you'd have never considered the latter perspective without playing Devil's Advocate.

Taking the position of the Devil's advocate essentially will enable you to understand how things come together at a central point. Sure, that point is typically a weakness rather than a strength, but the approach lets you know how the fundamental pieces of a thing work together.

Let's look quickly at the origins of the phrase:

"Back in ye good ol' days", the Catholic church would determine which individuals were worthy of becoming saints through a process known as "canonisation". During this process, the church would hire a canon lawyer, who would take a sceptical view of a particular candidate's actions. The church, on the other hand, advocated for the prospective saint.

Thus the lawyer played the role of the "Devil's advocate", while the church played the role of "God's advocate". The Devil's advocate played a vital role in verifying the integrity of "miraculous" claims.

This sceptical analysis aimed to explain the supposedly mystical or miraculous. How could this be done? Start at the "corners" or evident flaws and then work backwards or "pull at the seams".

If logical and straightforward questions could explain the miraculous, was it really miraculous?

Taking the sceptical approach, or looking at situations from an opposite or alternate angle, demystified the seemingly miraculous achievements of several candidates for sainthood.

In the context of the Catholic church, they simplified the complicated and thus revealed its true nature.

See where I'm going with this?

Let's look at a more practical modern-day example. Many hackers end up being recruited by high-end security firms. In many cases, even by government bodies and top-secret agencies. Well, why is that?

Well, in a very real way, hackers play Devil's Advocate to cyber security systems. They identify their flaws and deconstruct systems going backwards. Firms often use "red teams" to identify weaknesses and attack them, while "blue teams" defend against them.

At Leon! We play Devil's advocate quite often in our approach to 2D animations. It often helps us identify flaws at early stages in development, i.e. poor 1st drafts, mismatched branding or visuals, or even a far too ambitious deadline. Once we've identified an issue, we can work it out before it becomes something more significant.