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.
Not a programmer but at my last job I couldnt count how many times I would walk into our engineers office and start explaining a problem only to stop mid sentence and say “wait, I’m an idiot” then walk back out. Sometimes talking about it is all you need to make the pieces fit.
Real thing by the way. Works not only with programming.
came to say this and in addition its more effective with an actual person even if they don’t say anything. Even a small amount of feedback helps that much more although ironically though it kinda palteus if it stops you from jumping on your new ideas and getting them down.
Works with writing fiction, too. I read the section aloud and explain the reasoning behind the choices, and that helps me figure out what isn’t quite working. Also, reading aloud makes awkward dialog stand out more so than reading silently.
This happens so often with my wife that she’s started saying “quack” when I figure it out
It’s all fun and games until the duck talks back.
I call one of my coworkers once a week with “Can I rubber duck you?” which means I’m just going to talk about my problem and explain my thought process in hopes she spots an obvious solution.
We do it to each other and 30% of the time the other dev says “why not just X” and we agree that it’s pretty obvious.
this is one reason I type questions out before asking them
the number of times I found the error, while describing the error on stackoverflow …
But isn’t that well known, even from school days? If you’ve ever explained something to someone you’ve recognized that by doing that you’re forced into overthinking the context, diving deeper into the subject.
Sure, teaching is one of the fastest ways to learn.
Also see SoDoTo. See one, Do one, Teach one.
https://www.eclathospitality.com/blog/career-management/use-the-sodoto-method-to-learn-anything
True for everything I think.
This is why I put rubber ducks at all desks of my it colleagues. It helps.
It might have escalated a bit after that though. There are hundreds of rubber duckies all around the office now…
Oh I know a place that is/was like this but with tiny (or not so tiny) T-Rex figures due to naming things.
fun fact, I used to do this and had a small mental breakdown because my piece of shit boss refused to listen to my solutions, ultimately causing me more work and stress because the solutions he forced me to implement failed even more spectacularly.
I burned the duck as an effigy of my boss when he was finally fired.
I will never have another duck.
I feel like you burned the messenger, somehow.
all that duck did was enable him. it caused me to accept his behavior and allowed me to ignore the situation because I felt someone listened to me.
A corollary to this is that it’s often very difficult to explain what’s wrong because if you could explain it clearly, you would probably be fixing it already.
it is the process of explaining how your code works (or should work) to someone that you realizes the errors or solution.
Precisely! The process of putting your thoughts in order to explain things usually gives me the answers.
I used to teach design. Before a presentation, I always asked my student to explain their project to someone with no knowledge on the subject, like their grandmother or so. Mainly to discover the logic flaws in their presentation.
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)
My wife is my rubber duck. She doesn’t mind when I explain the most jargon-heavy stuff to her.
I do this, but with my half-naked anime figures.
