In 1587, the Pope created a job inside the Catholic Church whose entire purpose was to say no.
Officially it was called the Promotor Fidei, the "Promoter of the Faith." Nobody called it that.
Everybody called the guy the devil's advocate.
Here's what he actually did. Every time the Church considered making someone a saint, this guy's whole job was to build the meanest possible case against it. Dig up the character flaws. Poke holes in the miracles. Argue, on the record, in the room, that this person did not deserve it. If he couldn't be beaten with real evidence, the case died right there.
For almost 400 years, that was mandatory. No devil's advocate, no saint. Full stop.
Then in 1983, Pope John Paul II gutted the job.
In his 26 years as Pope, he personally canonized 483 saints. Same Church. Same process. He just removed the one guy whose entire job was to argue "no."
Nobody got holier in 1983. Somebody just stopped being allowed to push back.
Here's what this has to do with your business…
Every AI tool you're using right now is trained to make you feel good about what you already think.
Ask it if your new price point is smart, it'll find you three reasons you're a genius. Ask it to edit your writing, and it will tell you that you’re a better writer than Shakespeare.
It's not lying to you exactly. It's doing exactly what it was built to do: agree with the person talking to it, because agreeable keeps you coming back tomorrow, and keep paying for your subscription.
That's the whole business model.
This is the problem for business owners using AI daily.
When you ask your AI for an opinion, if it doesn’t have enough context, it will just work to please you.
Some people get sharper because of AI. Other people just get faster at being confidently wrong. And nobody likes that.
So how can you hire your own Devil’s Advocate inside AI so you aren’t fed a never ending feed of overinflated confidence?
🎁 Use This “Devil’s Advocate” Prompt
Paste this into any AI before you commit to your next big decision:
Act as my devil's advocate. I'm about to [describe the decision, price, email, hire, or plan]. Don't tell me it's good. Find every reason this could fail, backfire, or make me look foolish, and argue against it as hard as a smart competitor who wants to see me lose would. Then tell me the one weakness that worries you most.
In 1587, the Church figured out that no idea survives without someone whose actual job is to say no.
Your AI will never volunteer for that job, so you gotta create it.
This Week's AI Win
"It's in my voice. It sounds like me. It's not AI script. It sounds very personable... and it makes me look much more professional."
What I’m Reading:
What I’ve Learned So Far:
Societies flourish through openness to trade, ideas, and people. But they decline and fall when they start restricting restricting trade and freedom of speech. Sounds obvious, but this book examines the Golden Ages, and how once things are going GREAT, political leads try to protect their power by closing off their country, and their downfall soon follows. This isn’t a political statement, it’s an observation from the book.
Thanks for reading,
Matt
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