#ThinkfullyHabit: Alright me duck
Rubber ducking is a concept that is likely to be most familiar to those in the computer programming world as a way to help debug codes. The term comes from a story in the book ‘ The Pragmatic Programmer'* in which a programmer carries around a rubber duck and forces themselves to explain their code line-by-line to the duck, with the aim of helping find the bugs.
Even if we don’t write code, many of us will have had the experience of explaining a problem out loud, only to be hit by an idea for a solution part way through. Somehow, simply talking the problem out loud and in detail helps get to a new idea.
“The stereotype of the mad scientist talking to themselves, lost in their own inner world, might reflect the reality of a genius who uses all the means at their disposal to increase their brain power. ”
WHY?
We tend to think a lot faster than we talk. When explaining something out loud rather than silently in our heads, we’re more likely to slow down and be more exact. Essentially, talking aloud and starting at the beginning - to something with no assumed comprehension - can expose otherwise hidden assumptions that can be easily galloped over and taken for granted. By making things more explicit it can help us pay fresh attention to pieces of information that may otherwise be overlooked. It’s this that often prompts us to spot something new which may have previously been missed or left unquestioned; allowing thoughts to be gathered in a more complete way.
Besides, there’s also an added benefit of this approach in that unlike people, ducks don’t interrupt and you don’t need to worry about what they’ll think of you.
So next time you're stuck, find a duck# and follow these few simple rules:
Be specific. Don’t summarise lots of things quickly in just a few words or skip the details.
Assume nothing (after all a rubber duck knows nothing!) Explain things simply.
Start from the beginning, not in the middle.
Talk out loud – researchers Mari-Beffa and Kirkham demonstrated that talking out loud can have more impact than ‘inner speech’**.
#To be clear. It doesn’t need to be a rubber duck. Other inanimate objects can also work:)
And If it is a rubber duck, don’t worry, it’s official that you’re not actually quackers.