Rubber Ducky
24 Mar 2009I never owned a rubber ducky growing up…
::Of course my mother may read this some day, smack me on the head, and say, “Of course you head a rubber ducky, his name was Sprinkles. You played with him every time I gave you a bath…how dare you tell everyone you didn’t own a ducky!” I swear, I have no recollection of said duck…but I digress::
I don’t believe I owned a rubber ducky growing up…however I read a post on Hacker News (http://news.ycombinator.com/) about Rubber Ducky Programming that made me want to go buy one.
After thinking about it for a few days, I wanted to write a post about it, but now I can’t find the original post. I did find an article that had a very similar feel to the original, http://lists.ethernal.org/oldarchives/cantlug-0211/msg00174.html
Paraphrasing from the article:
- Place a rubber ducky on your desk
- Anytime you want to implement a new idea, talk it over with the rubber ducky and get his take on the new idea. The key here is talk it over out loud; listen to your own voice as you talk to the rubber ducky.
- If at any point in your explanation you find it difficult to explain your new idea, you can’t find the proper words to continue, or you lose yourself in your own explanation, pause, smile, and realize the rubber ducky has done his job.
- Thank the rubber ducky for a job well done. Take a minute to schedule an appointment to take the rubber ducky out for a beer next week.
I have found if I talk over a new idea out loud with a co-worker I discover holes in the idea that I haven’t thought about. Once I have discovered those holes I will often change my thinking, re-evaluate, or drop my idea.
The only rub with talking new ideas over with a co-worker is if I went sprinting into a co-workers office with a new idea every ten minutes, I might find myself sprinting head first into a closed door when I have my next great idea.
But if I talked over those ideas with my rubber ducky, out loud, maybe I could cut down on my head injuries…maybe I’ll even find my co-worker’s doors open again.
Try it out, not just with programming challenges, but with decisions on what new car to buy, what laptop to shop for, or what video game to pick up next. You may find yourself becoming better able to develop and articulate your ideas to your co-workers after you have tried them out on your rubber ducky.