Rubber Duck Debugging
Talking through problems
Rubber Duck it
Even the best software engineers have bad days. Logic can feel impenetrable and difficult to process.
The techniques you use to overcome any impasse in your job are vital, and will keep you productive during even the worst of times.
Choosing the right technique at the right time is vital, as is knowing a variety of tools that you can choose in any given situation.
This particular tool for your toolkit is called Rubber Duck Debugging, and this guide will take you through the essentials of this curiously named technique.
Ducking History
Debugging, where a programmer identifies and solves errors using the tools at their disposal is a common conversation topic for programmers.
Whole books have been written about the topic. One of those is The pragmatic programmer, a book so old that it is on its 20th anniversary addition, but in the book a technique is described where a programmer explains each line of their code to a rubber duck. This is in lieu of describing your problems to a co-worker, who might be busy (or just not like you. Although you don’t probably have that problem. Hopefully).
