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thinking-steel-manning

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Before rejecting a proposal or reflexively agreeing, build the strongest faithful opposing case, state agreement conditions, then update or reaffirm.

When to use

• About to reject a proposal, design, or alternative approach.
• Inclined to agree with the user/plan and risk sycophancy — construct the best case *against* first.
• Design review, architecture debate, or conflict where trade-offs are real.
• Validating your own preferred decision before locking it (strongest-countercase check).

When not to use

• Settled fact, security anti-pattern, or violated hard requirement — correct it; do not invent a defense of what is wrong.
• You already agree for stated, weighed reasons — do not perform a fake debate.
• Trivial or fully reversible choices where deliberation cost exceeds downside.
• Live emergency — act first; steel-man in the post-incident review.
• Need definition/assumption cleanup, not opposition — use socratic.
• Need failure scenarios for a plan — use pre-mortem; need attacker paths — use red-team.

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