This rubber duck can debug your code

It's 3:00 a.m. Your code is broken. You have no idea where your kids are. And
you're starting to wonder if building your own operating system kernel from
scratch was a bad idea.

When this happens, it's time to whip out your rubber duck. What you do is teach your imaginary friend how your code works line by line. The duck is a great listener who won't judge and criticize you.

Normal people will think you're crazy (which you are) but verbalizing your thought process out loud is a weirdly effective way to trigger a higher level of cognitive functioning.

Even Senica knew this 2,000 years ago, who said: 'while we teach, we
learn'. Magically, that missing semicolon on line 6,233 becomes glaringly obvious.

Not only does rubber duck debugging make you more productive but it's also a great way to prepare for all your upcoming technical interview failures.

#coding #programming #debugging #code #softwareengineering

🎨 My Editor Settings

- Atom One Dark
- vscode-icons
- Fira Code Font

[vatum]

Now I realized, I'm someone's rubber duck.

[EmuEmuchu]

Idk but my imagination mostly judges and criticizes me

[zero]

My last team literally gave out rubber ducks as a fun little nod to this.

It’s genuinely funny how often an engineer figures out their own problem while asking for help and describing the situation to someone.

Save that someone the time, talk to the duck first.

[Wineblood]

I don't have a duck, I have a little fox plushie.

He thinks my code is shit so I stopped talking to him.

[GSBarlev]

I fully expected this to be about some LLM code-assist startup. Very relieved to be wrong

[tbk]

I don't know, my rubber duck can be VERY judgmental. He doesn't say anything, but you can see the disappointment in his eyes.

[Recodetfort]

I'm already using it! And it's actually works!

[TreesPlease]

Needed this, thank you. Used to talk with myself all the time and stopped when going to the office

[xijnin]

My friend gave me a rubber duck for me on my birthday bc he knew I was a programmer, and i loved it

[zexusreforce]

Brave of you to assume i understand how my code works.

[chaplain]

"It's 3am"
My guy you just need sleep.

[tecno_andre]

My thoughts when i programm:
30%: "2 years ago i was way better"
30%: "i'm getting worse"
30% "should i ask chat gpt?"
9% "i am so stupid"
1% actually thinking about what the problem is

[jefnhnh]

"Normal people will think you are crazy, which you are"

[marathonman]

This is part of the Feynman technique. A technique that helps understand complex concepts by studying and teaching (or speaking). It helps narrow down knowledge gaps and simplify what you're learning (i.e. explain like I'm a 5 year old).

From what I've heard, it's an effective way of studying as trying to teach forces you to understand how different parts of a subject are joined together and expain in terms easy for others to understand.

[Cyp_Cyp]

I'm lonely enough I have rubber ducks everywhere!
On my desk

In my car

In the kitchen

On the piano

And I talk to them all~
I might need help but at least I've got my ducks in a row.

[bhagyeshkocharekar]

Glad to know that i am not only the one who is thinking to make my own os from scratch

[googleisevil]

I got 2 ducks already, I’m 2x as fast at rubber ducking now right?

[Rohinthas]

This is the only actual use I have gotten out of LLM's. Explaining my code to the equivalent of an overconfident bootcamp graduate actually helps me figure out stuff, because it forces me to explain why the responses are wrong. Also, ChatGPT's enthusiastic wrongness is kinda endearing.

[Murphy-]

We call it "elking", when you explain something to someone else, but don't actually expect their help, but rather expect to find the solution ourself, while explaining the problem.

[FirstnameLastname_official]

Cognitive funtoning is an accurate description of whatever is going on in my head at 3 am