# Advanced: Idea Evaluation and Refinement

You've generated 20 creative ideas. Now what? Most people pick the one that "feels right" — which usually means the one that's most familiar, not the one that's best. This lesson teaches you to use AI to evaluate, stress-test, and refine ideas systematically.

Devil's Advocate Prompting

Devil's advocate prompting asks AI to argue against an idea as aggressively as possible. This reveals weaknesses you'd otherwise discover only after investing time and money.

Prompt: > "I'm considering this idea: [describe the idea in detail]. > > Be my devil's advocate. Attack this idea from every angle: > 1. What are the 3 most likely reasons this would fail? > 2. What's the most expensive mistake I could make pursuing this? > 3. What assumption am I making that is probably wrong? > 4. Who would hate this idea, and why would their objection be valid? > 5. What's a simpler alternative that achieves 80% of the same result? > > Be brutally honest. I need to hear the hard truths, not encouragement."

Why it works: AI is naturally agreeable — it wants to validate your ideas. "Be my devil's advocate" with specific attack dimensions overrides this tendency and produces genuinely critical analysis.