The art of Rubber Ducking or Rubber Duck Debugging
It works. Really.
"Put a rubber duck on your monitor and tell it how the code is supposed to work."
The Rubber Duck can be your disinterested roommate, non-technical spouse, or your work-spouse. I call Damian Edwards or Tara Walker all the time and they just listen to me explain how it should work and somewhere in the middle of explaining it out loud I'll go...OOOOOOOOHHHH...and then I've solved it.
If you are new to programming, go check out my YouTube, specifically this one about being Overwhelmed with Programming. I talk about the importance of Rubber Ducking and verbalizing how your code should work.
This can be challenging in these remote times, so I recommend that you try to build a small community of like minded friends and developers. You can find folks on Discord and other community sites or consider reaching out to a friend on Twitter or from work and say "I can use you as a rubber duck sometimes?"
I have little Gundam and Gunpla (Amazon link) robot models on my desk and I'll use them to help me debug.
This might sound silly but it ABSOLUTELY works. Ask around. Try it.
You'll find that getting the problem outside your head, via your mouth, and then back into your ears is often enough to shake brain cells loose and help you solve the issue.
Rubber Ducking also is great practice in technical communication! Have you ever given a technical talk? There's actually not much distance between explaining a technical issue clearly, correctly, and concisely and giving a talk at a user group or conference!
Have you tried Rubber Duck Debugging? Let us know AND encourage early in career Code Newbies to consider (and normalize) this technique!
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About Scott
Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.
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Chris Haas
Where I live, married people don't talk to rubber ducks. This is especially true when their spouses are in the same house with them because of COVID-19.
In these lockdown times, I've found even writing an email to someone to explain the problem works pretty well also.
Maybe I should phone her up when I'm stuck with programming ...
It is more difficult to choose what to dream about, but if you are really obsessed by a piece of code it is quite possible. And the results are amazing. Did you ever tried?
I'm a big fan to.
For young programmer born with an iPhone in the hand, it's hard to understand that thinking about a problem and finding a solution is a matter of technology. I'm 100% agree with you when you talk about the right environment, talking to a toy or writing on a paper notebook. Good technology is great but the process of thinking is in my view better than any other things.
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