I like that statement. "I'll be the devil's advocate" is right up there with everyone stating they will defend hate speech "to the death" because of free speech. Why not take your time to say you disagree with someone instead?
There's a time and place for it, like "devil's advocate: what if we decide we don't trust this vendor's performance and want to delete our data after we've already started using them?" But when it's shorthand for "I'm going to be deliberately contrarian, and ...", then I tire of it.
I like that statement. "I'll be the devil's advocate" is right up there with everyone stating they will defend hate speech "to the death" because of free speech. Why not take your time to say you disagree with someone instead?