In Praise of the Rubber Duck

The most effective member of my debugging team is a small plastic duck. It has no degree, no commits, and no opinions. You explain your code to it, out loud, line by line, and somewhere around line forty you hear yourself say the thing that is obviously, catastrophically wrong.

The duck did nothing. The duck is always doing nothing. That is precisely its gift. The act of explaining forces you to slow down and actually read what you wrote instead of what you meant to write, and the bug, exposed to daylight, simply gives up.

Half of senior engineering is being a more expensive rubber duck for everyone else. People walk over, start describing their problem, solve it mid-sentence, say thanks, and leave. I have learned to just nod. The billing is the same.