Modern Devil's Advocacy

Modern Devil's Advocacy

Author: Robert Koshinskie

Publisher: Business Expert Press

Published: 2022-01-04

Total Pages: 168

ISBN-13: 1637421761

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In 2018, the celebrated biotechnology startup Theranos collapsed from a market valuation of over $9 billion into bankruptcy and felony charges against its superstar founder, Elizabeth Holmes. This spectacular failure was due in large part to the silencing of dissenting voices who challenged the dubious claims and questionable decisions by Theranos leadership. Similar catastrophic examples can be found in business, the military and other human activities. Modern Devil’s Advocacy is a form of challenge analysis that’s intended to help overcome our human bias and fallacious reasoning, disrupt groupthink, reduce risk, and achieve better outcomes. By creating a strong counter case to any decision, modern Devil’s Advocates can help others see potential weaknesses in their assumptions, beliefs, and judgments. This book will show you how practically anyone from the CEO to the newly minted manager can and should think and act like a modern Devil’s Advocate. You will learn the origin of modern Devil’s Advocacy, why the practice is desperately needed today, and how to apply modern Devil’s Advocacy in any setting. If you want to learn how to constructively challenge the judgments that you and others make and achieve better outcomes, then this book is for you.


Book Synopsis Modern Devil's Advocacy by : Robert Koshinskie

Download or read book Modern Devil's Advocacy written by Robert Koshinskie and published by Business Expert Press. This book was released on 2022-01-04 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2018, the celebrated biotechnology startup Theranos collapsed from a market valuation of over $9 billion into bankruptcy and felony charges against its superstar founder, Elizabeth Holmes. This spectacular failure was due in large part to the silencing of dissenting voices who challenged the dubious claims and questionable decisions by Theranos leadership. Similar catastrophic examples can be found in business, the military and other human activities. Modern Devil’s Advocacy is a form of challenge analysis that’s intended to help overcome our human bias and fallacious reasoning, disrupt groupthink, reduce risk, and achieve better outcomes. By creating a strong counter case to any decision, modern Devil’s Advocates can help others see potential weaknesses in their assumptions, beliefs, and judgments. This book will show you how practically anyone from the CEO to the newly minted manager can and should think and act like a modern Devil’s Advocate. You will learn the origin of modern Devil’s Advocacy, why the practice is desperately needed today, and how to apply modern Devil’s Advocacy in any setting. If you want to learn how to constructively challenge the judgments that you and others make and achieve better outcomes, then this book is for you.


Devils in the Details

Devils in the Details

Author: Robert Koshinskie

Publisher:

Published: 2020-08-14

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13:

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If you're ready to break free of groupthink, challenge the majority view and make better decisions, then this book is for you.The popular, majority view often decides what's best in everything from entertainment to business practices. Time and again, however, we've seen how going along with the crowd can lead to dissatisfying or disastrous results. If only we had taken the time to seek a thoughtful dissenting opinion. Devils in the Details calls for the rise of modern Devil's Advocacy to help reduce risk and manage uncertainty. Through discussion and examples, this book challenges decision-makers from the CEO to the newly minted manager to think and act like a modern Devil's Advocate. Inside you'll discover: The origin of devil's advocacy and why modern Devil's Advocates are needed today Why we need to regularly challenge our formal processes, including so-called best practices Different kinds of thinking and common biases and fallacies that can cloud our decision-making How to create real arguments with premises that support reasoned conclusions Practical tools from simple lists to dynamic simulation models, their strengths and weaknesses How to embrace modern Devil's Advocacy for diverse and useful dissent without impeding progress Early Reviews ====== "A worthwhile addition to the library of anyone who is responsible for crucial decision-making." Kristan J. Wheaton, Professor of Strategic Futures and author of The Warning Solution: Intelligent Analysis in the Age of Information "A marvelous piece of work." Gene Bellinger, organizational theorist, systems thinking and knowledge management About the Author ====== Robert Koshinskie is the principal of Ringbolt Consulting where he assists clients in product and marketing management, new product development and launch, and business analysis and strategy. He is a mentor in the NSF I-Corps Program and the creator and instructor for a decision-making seminar through NC State University Division of Continuing and Professional Education.


Book Synopsis Devils in the Details by : Robert Koshinskie

Download or read book Devils in the Details written by Robert Koshinskie and published by . This book was released on 2020-08-14 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If you're ready to break free of groupthink, challenge the majority view and make better decisions, then this book is for you.The popular, majority view often decides what's best in everything from entertainment to business practices. Time and again, however, we've seen how going along with the crowd can lead to dissatisfying or disastrous results. If only we had taken the time to seek a thoughtful dissenting opinion. Devils in the Details calls for the rise of modern Devil's Advocacy to help reduce risk and manage uncertainty. Through discussion and examples, this book challenges decision-makers from the CEO to the newly minted manager to think and act like a modern Devil's Advocate. Inside you'll discover: The origin of devil's advocacy and why modern Devil's Advocates are needed today Why we need to regularly challenge our formal processes, including so-called best practices Different kinds of thinking and common biases and fallacies that can cloud our decision-making How to create real arguments with premises that support reasoned conclusions Practical tools from simple lists to dynamic simulation models, their strengths and weaknesses How to embrace modern Devil's Advocacy for diverse and useful dissent without impeding progress Early Reviews ====== "A worthwhile addition to the library of anyone who is responsible for crucial decision-making." Kristan J. Wheaton, Professor of Strategic Futures and author of The Warning Solution: Intelligent Analysis in the Age of Information "A marvelous piece of work." Gene Bellinger, organizational theorist, systems thinking and knowledge management About the Author ====== Robert Koshinskie is the principal of Ringbolt Consulting where he assists clients in product and marketing management, new product development and launch, and business analysis and strategy. He is a mentor in the NSF I-Corps Program and the creator and instructor for a decision-making seminar through NC State University Division of Continuing and Professional Education.


The Devil and His Advocates

The Devil and His Advocates

Author: Erik Butler

Publisher: Reaktion Books

Published: 2021-04-08

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 1789143748

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Satan is not God’s enemy in the Bible, and he’s not always bad—much less evil. Through the lens of the Old and New Testaments, Erik Butler explores the Devil in literature, theology, visual art, and music from antiquity up to the present, discussing canonical authors (Dante, Milton, and Goethe among them) and a wealth of lesser-known sources. Since his first appearance in the Book of Job, Satan has pursued a single objective: to test human beings, whose moral worth and piety leave plenty of room for doubt. Satan can be manipulative, but at worst he facilitates what mortals are inclined to do anyway. “The Devil made me do it” does not hold up in the court of cosmic law. With wit and surprising examples, this book explains why.


Book Synopsis The Devil and His Advocates by : Erik Butler

Download or read book The Devil and His Advocates written by Erik Butler and published by Reaktion Books. This book was released on 2021-04-08 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Satan is not God’s enemy in the Bible, and he’s not always bad—much less evil. Through the lens of the Old and New Testaments, Erik Butler explores the Devil in literature, theology, visual art, and music from antiquity up to the present, discussing canonical authors (Dante, Milton, and Goethe among them) and a wealth of lesser-known sources. Since his first appearance in the Book of Job, Satan has pursued a single objective: to test human beings, whose moral worth and piety leave plenty of room for doubt. Satan can be manipulative, but at worst he facilitates what mortals are inclined to do anyway. “The Devil made me do it” does not hold up in the court of cosmic law. With wit and surprising examples, this book explains why.


The Devil's Advocate

The Devil's Advocate

Author: Iain Morley

Publisher:

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780414023222

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'The Devil's Advocate' brings a fresh approach to the do's and don'ts of good advocacy. Written with humour and style, the title explains clear techniques, taking the reader through the practical application of advocacy step-by-step.


Book Synopsis The Devil's Advocate by : Iain Morley

Download or read book The Devil's Advocate written by Iain Morley and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'The Devil's Advocate' brings a fresh approach to the do's and don'ts of good advocacy. Written with humour and style, the title explains clear techniques, taking the reader through the practical application of advocacy step-by-step.


Vexed with Devils

Vexed with Devils

Author: Erika Gasser

Publisher: NYU Press

Published: 2017-07-07

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 147984781X

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Stories of witchcraft and demonic possession from early modern England through the last official trials in colonial New England Those possessed by the devil in early modern England usually exhibited a common set of symptoms: fits, vomiting, visions, contortions, speaking in tongues, and an antipathy to prayer. However, it was a matter of interpretation, and sometimes public opinion, if these symptoms were visited upon the victim, or if they came from within. Both early modern England and colonial New England had cases that blurred the line between witchcraft and demonic possession, most famously, the Salem witch trials. While historians acknowledge some similarities in witch trials between the two regions, such as the fact that an overwhelming majority of witches were women, the histories of these cases primarily focus on local contexts and specifics. In so doing, they overlook the ways in which manhood factored into possession and witchcraft cases. Vexed with Devils is a cultural history of witchcraft-possession phenomena that centers on the role of men and patriarchal power. Erika Gasser reveals that witchcraft trials had as much to do with who had power in the community, to impose judgement or to subvert order, as they did with religious belief. She argues that the gendered dynamics of possession and witchcraft demonstrated that contested meanings of manhood played a critical role in the struggle to maintain authority. While all men were not capable of accessing power in the same ways, many of the people involved—those who acted as if they were possessed, men accused of being witches, and men who wrote possession propaganda—invoked manhood as they struggled to advocate for themselves during these perilous times. Gasser ultimately concludes that the decline of possession and witchcraft cases was not merely a product of change over time, but rather an indication of the ways in which patriarchal power endured throughout and beyond the colonial period. Vexed with Devils reexamines an unnerving time and offers a surprising new perspective on our own, using stories and voices which emerge from the records in ways that continue to fascinate and unsettle us.


Book Synopsis Vexed with Devils by : Erika Gasser

Download or read book Vexed with Devils written by Erika Gasser and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2017-07-07 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stories of witchcraft and demonic possession from early modern England through the last official trials in colonial New England Those possessed by the devil in early modern England usually exhibited a common set of symptoms: fits, vomiting, visions, contortions, speaking in tongues, and an antipathy to prayer. However, it was a matter of interpretation, and sometimes public opinion, if these symptoms were visited upon the victim, or if they came from within. Both early modern England and colonial New England had cases that blurred the line between witchcraft and demonic possession, most famously, the Salem witch trials. While historians acknowledge some similarities in witch trials between the two regions, such as the fact that an overwhelming majority of witches were women, the histories of these cases primarily focus on local contexts and specifics. In so doing, they overlook the ways in which manhood factored into possession and witchcraft cases. Vexed with Devils is a cultural history of witchcraft-possession phenomena that centers on the role of men and patriarchal power. Erika Gasser reveals that witchcraft trials had as much to do with who had power in the community, to impose judgement or to subvert order, as they did with religious belief. She argues that the gendered dynamics of possession and witchcraft demonstrated that contested meanings of manhood played a critical role in the struggle to maintain authority. While all men were not capable of accessing power in the same ways, many of the people involved—those who acted as if they were possessed, men accused of being witches, and men who wrote possession propaganda—invoked manhood as they struggled to advocate for themselves during these perilous times. Gasser ultimately concludes that the decline of possession and witchcraft cases was not merely a product of change over time, but rather an indication of the ways in which patriarchal power endured throughout and beyond the colonial period. Vexed with Devils reexamines an unnerving time and offers a surprising new perspective on our own, using stories and voices which emerge from the records in ways that continue to fascinate and unsettle us.


The Devil's Advocate

The Devil's Advocate

Author: Percy Greg

Publisher: London Trübner 1878.

Published: 1878

Total Pages: 356

ISBN-13:

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Book Synopsis The Devil's Advocate by : Percy Greg

Download or read book The Devil's Advocate written by Percy Greg and published by London Trübner 1878.. This book was released on 1878 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:


Devil's Advocate

Devil's Advocate

Author: James George Frazer

Publisher: RoutledgeCurzon

Published: 2000-07-01

Total Pages: 326

ISBN-13: 9780700714445

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Second edition, revised and enlarged, of Psyche's Task, to which is added The Scope of Anthropology. First published 1927. Bound with The Growth of Plato's Ideal Theory, first published in 1930. Sir James G. Frazer (1854-1941) is famous as the author of The Golden Bough, but his work ranged widely across classics, cultural history, folklore and literary criticism as well as anthropology. A Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, for 62 years, Sir James G. Frazer devoted his life to research.


Book Synopsis Devil's Advocate by : James George Frazer

Download or read book Devil's Advocate written by James George Frazer and published by RoutledgeCurzon. This book was released on 2000-07-01 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Second edition, revised and enlarged, of Psyche's Task, to which is added The Scope of Anthropology. First published 1927. Bound with The Growth of Plato's Ideal Theory, first published in 1930. Sir James G. Frazer (1854-1941) is famous as the author of The Golden Bough, but his work ranged widely across classics, cultural history, folklore and literary criticism as well as anthropology. A Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, for 62 years, Sir James G. Frazer devoted his life to research.


Let the Right One In

Let the Right One In

Author: Anne Billson

Publisher: Liverpool University Press

Published: 2011-10-31

Total Pages: 163

ISBN-13: 1906733961

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These days it takes a very special vampire movie to stand out. Like Twilight, the Swedish film Let the Right One In is a love story between a human and a vampire but there the resemblance ends. Let the Right One In is not a romantic fantasy but combines the supernatural with social realism. Set on a housing estate in the suburbs of Stockholm in the early 1980s, it's the story of Oskar, a lonely, bullied child, who makes friends with Eli, the girl in the next apartment. 'Oskar, I'm not a girl,' she tells him and she's not kidding. They forge a relationship which is oddly innocent yet disturbing, two outsiders against the rest of the world. But one of these outsiders is, effectively, a serial killer. While Let the Right One In is startlingly original, it nevertheless couldn't have existed without the near century of vampire cinema that preceded it. Acclaimed film critic and horror novelist Anne Billson looks at how it has drawn from, and wrung new twists on, such classics as Nosferatu (1922), how vampire cinema has already flirted with social realism in films like Near Dark (1987) and how vampire mythology adapts itself to the modern world.


Book Synopsis Let the Right One In by : Anne Billson

Download or read book Let the Right One In written by Anne Billson and published by Liverpool University Press. This book was released on 2011-10-31 with total page 163 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: These days it takes a very special vampire movie to stand out. Like Twilight, the Swedish film Let the Right One In is a love story between a human and a vampire but there the resemblance ends. Let the Right One In is not a romantic fantasy but combines the supernatural with social realism. Set on a housing estate in the suburbs of Stockholm in the early 1980s, it's the story of Oskar, a lonely, bullied child, who makes friends with Eli, the girl in the next apartment. 'Oskar, I'm not a girl,' she tells him and she's not kidding. They forge a relationship which is oddly innocent yet disturbing, two outsiders against the rest of the world. But one of these outsiders is, effectively, a serial killer. While Let the Right One In is startlingly original, it nevertheless couldn't have existed without the near century of vampire cinema that preceded it. Acclaimed film critic and horror novelist Anne Billson looks at how it has drawn from, and wrung new twists on, such classics as Nosferatu (1922), how vampire cinema has already flirted with social realism in films like Near Dark (1987) and how vampire mythology adapts itself to the modern world.


The Devil's Advocates

The Devil's Advocates

Author: Thomas R. Whissen

Publisher: Praeger

Published: 1989-08-07

Total Pages: 168

ISBN-13:

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It is a feat to demystify decadence genially while dealing with unsavory material usually presented complicitously. But Whissen achieves even more. He is not looking at counterculture literature but at mainstream literature in which the reader either senses something decadent in the writer's attitude or identifies some rhetorical device associated with the decadence. . . . He focuses chiefly on authors who have been studied from other perspectives (e.g., Gide, Mann, James, Dinesen) or who have hardly been studied at all (e.g., Maugham, Firbank, Capote, Suesskind, Stephen King). Choice As a distinct literary movement, decadence made its brief appearance in the last two decades of the nineteenth century. As a theme and a philosophical posture, however, it continues to maintain a hold on the Western literary imagination. The first writer to examine the pervasive influence of decadence on modern literature, Whissen approaches the decadent vision as an attempt to come to terms with a world in decline, rather than as a transient literary fad. He explores the ways in which decadence functions not only in modern literature but in modern life, arguing that if we fail to notice the elements of decadence in literature, it is because they are now such an accepted part of our reality that we do not recognize them as decadent. Whissen discusses two major strains of decadence that originated in Oscar Wilde's day and have continued to influence modern literature. One is the decadent work, a narrative infused with a conscious, committed self-indulgence that serves both as solace and as a form of rebellion against the perceived ugliness and hypocrisy of the modern world. The other strain includes works that have decadence as their theme, such as Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray. In an analysis of the prototypic French decadent novel, Huysmans' Against Nature, the author identifies the primary elements that make up the decadent temper: narcissism, masochism, irony, alienation, sophistication, vanity, sensitivity, nihilism, and a taste for uncommon or intense experience. He traces the development of these elements in works by Wilde, Henry James, Andre Gide, Thomas Mann, and Isak Dinesen, as well as two contemporary writers--Patrick Suskind and Paul Rudnick. A significant contribution to literary scholarship and criticism, this book will be of interest for courses or studies in modern and contemporary Western literature, humanities, social history, and social psychology.


Book Synopsis The Devil's Advocates by : Thomas R. Whissen

Download or read book The Devil's Advocates written by Thomas R. Whissen and published by Praeger. This book was released on 1989-08-07 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is a feat to demystify decadence genially while dealing with unsavory material usually presented complicitously. But Whissen achieves even more. He is not looking at counterculture literature but at mainstream literature in which the reader either senses something decadent in the writer's attitude or identifies some rhetorical device associated with the decadence. . . . He focuses chiefly on authors who have been studied from other perspectives (e.g., Gide, Mann, James, Dinesen) or who have hardly been studied at all (e.g., Maugham, Firbank, Capote, Suesskind, Stephen King). Choice As a distinct literary movement, decadence made its brief appearance in the last two decades of the nineteenth century. As a theme and a philosophical posture, however, it continues to maintain a hold on the Western literary imagination. The first writer to examine the pervasive influence of decadence on modern literature, Whissen approaches the decadent vision as an attempt to come to terms with a world in decline, rather than as a transient literary fad. He explores the ways in which decadence functions not only in modern literature but in modern life, arguing that if we fail to notice the elements of decadence in literature, it is because they are now such an accepted part of our reality that we do not recognize them as decadent. Whissen discusses two major strains of decadence that originated in Oscar Wilde's day and have continued to influence modern literature. One is the decadent work, a narrative infused with a conscious, committed self-indulgence that serves both as solace and as a form of rebellion against the perceived ugliness and hypocrisy of the modern world. The other strain includes works that have decadence as their theme, such as Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray. In an analysis of the prototypic French decadent novel, Huysmans' Against Nature, the author identifies the primary elements that make up the decadent temper: narcissism, masochism, irony, alienation, sophistication, vanity, sensitivity, nihilism, and a taste for uncommon or intense experience. He traces the development of these elements in works by Wilde, Henry James, Andre Gide, Thomas Mann, and Isak Dinesen, as well as two contemporary writers--Patrick Suskind and Paul Rudnick. A significant contribution to literary scholarship and criticism, this book will be of interest for courses or studies in modern and contemporary Western literature, humanities, social history, and social psychology.


Poltergeist

Poltergeist

Author: Rob McLaughlin

Publisher: Liverpool University Press

Published: 2023-07-01

Total Pages: 129

ISBN-13: 1800857454

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'Created’ by Steven Spielberg yet officially directed by Tobe Hooper, Poltergeist (1982) can be best described as ‘family horror movie’ both in its target audience and in its narrative context, the story of an All-American suburban family, the Freelings, whose home suddenly becomes the site of a spectacular haunting, apparently summoned by their young daughter. The film is somewhat of an anachronism and this Devil's Advocate explores this in both the scope of production and narrative. The book discusses the duality of the text highlighting debates surrounding both Spielberg's somewhat saccharine portrayal of middle-class Americana and his more subversive cinematic endeavours. The duality of the text also will also be discussed in the context of the film's production – with both Spielberg and Hooper on set for much of the time, the result was a movie with the production values, effects and marketing of a high budget mainstream cinema blockbuster apparently directed by a subversive 'grindhouse' cinema auteur. Yet Poltergeist is neither nor both of those things, instead being a unique hybrid of genres and styles taking the best and worst from both aspects of family blockbuster and cult horror film, and as such can be seen as a text that is something unique – a classic modern take on the traditional haunted house story.


Book Synopsis Poltergeist by : Rob McLaughlin

Download or read book Poltergeist written by Rob McLaughlin and published by Liverpool University Press. This book was released on 2023-07-01 with total page 129 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Created’ by Steven Spielberg yet officially directed by Tobe Hooper, Poltergeist (1982) can be best described as ‘family horror movie’ both in its target audience and in its narrative context, the story of an All-American suburban family, the Freelings, whose home suddenly becomes the site of a spectacular haunting, apparently summoned by their young daughter. The film is somewhat of an anachronism and this Devil's Advocate explores this in both the scope of production and narrative. The book discusses the duality of the text highlighting debates surrounding both Spielberg's somewhat saccharine portrayal of middle-class Americana and his more subversive cinematic endeavours. The duality of the text also will also be discussed in the context of the film's production – with both Spielberg and Hooper on set for much of the time, the result was a movie with the production values, effects and marketing of a high budget mainstream cinema blockbuster apparently directed by a subversive 'grindhouse' cinema auteur. Yet Poltergeist is neither nor both of those things, instead being a unique hybrid of genres and styles taking the best and worst from both aspects of family blockbuster and cult horror film, and as such can be seen as a text that is something unique – a classic modern take on the traditional haunted house story.