Programmers often discover solutions while explaining a problem to someone else, even to people with no programming knowledge. Describing the code, and comparing to what it actually does, exposes inconsistencies. Explaining a subject also forces the programmer to look at it from new perspectives and can provide a deeper understanding.
I don’t know who initialyse selected the rubber duck as a symbol for that. But it can’t be a coincidence that the method works even better for me while showering.
(Although with that, the energy costs might rival that of AI use)