The emphasis here of course is on hating everything. Being critical of bad decisions and bad choices, like using MS Access for a business solution or heavy artillery in muddy conditions, isn't necessarily being negative. Playing devils advocate in a group decision making process can be a good way to ensure the problem and potential solution has been properly thought through. Of course there will always be those people who dont appreciate any kind of non-positive input. Playing devil's advocate in every instance and voicing only the negative is something which should be avoided.

When asked what is my biggest challenge at work, my response is always 'being positive in a negative environment'. As the IT Janitor no one calls me when things are going fine, and when building solutions as part of a large diverse team I frequently encounter inexperience and a shallow depth of knowledge (and sometimes its me). It's hard to remain positive when the people who seek my help and input frequently use that interaction as an opportunity to complain about the difficult task theyve been set, their lousy job, and their lousy boss. It would be so very easy to get caught up in that negative spiral and not even notice that seeing and communicating a negative response has become your default response to everything.