Shift Critical Thinking Left: Continuous Critical Thinking in the Test Lifecycle

Stephen Platten is a principal consultant at Inspire Testing, a MoTaverse ambassador, and the writer behind LinkedIn's "The Stoic Tester." A former Royal Air Force engineer who spent over a decade on fast jets before moving into trials, evaluation, and validation work, Stephen went on to lead test delivery at Yorkshire Water, work as a chapter lead at Admiral Insurance, and now consults across quality and testing for Inspire Testing.

In this episode, Stephen and Rosie explore how Stoic philosophy shaped his approach to critical thinking, and why that skill matters more than ever in the age of AI. They dig into Anthony Weston's Rule Book of Arguments, unpack logical fallacies like appeal to automation, appeal to authority, false dilemma, hasty generalisation, and survivorship bias, and discuss how testers can use bottom-up, systems thinking to challenge AI-generated content.

The conversation also covers root cause analysis and human factors borrowed from Stephen's Air Force background, why AI strategy gets more attention than AI governance, and how evidence-based arguments, not stronger opinions, should win the day.

Follow Stephen Platten and Rosie Sherry in the MoTaverse.