Rubber Duck Debugging: an unusual tool for problem solving

The Daily Drip

This topic brought to you by @Cleverlike in our Slack community. Join the party!


Have you ever noticed that you understand a problem better when you explain it to someone else?

That’s classic human brain right there. This is referred to as “verbal processing.”

It’s powerful because when you have to explain something out loud using words, you are recruiting another area of your brain to join the thought party.

We don’t think in words. We think in feelings and usually images. Yeah, we could argue about words being an image, which is why you can read this:

"I cnduo't bvleiee taht I culod aulaclty uesdtannrd waht I was rdnaieg. Unisg the icndeblire pweor of the hmuan mnid, aocdcrnig to rseecrah at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mttaer in waht oderr the lterets in a wrod are, the olny irpoamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rhgit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whoutit a pboerlm. Tihs is bucseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey ltteer by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Aaznmig, huh? Yaeh and I awlyas tghhuot slelinpg was ipmorantt! See if yuor fdreins can raed tihs too."

It’s less about the letters of the word and more about the shape of the word, which is closer to an "image."

When you start using language to help you process a thought, not only are you recruiting that new area of your brain to do some lifting, but you’re also processing your thoughts more slowly.

The brain thinks in milliseconds. It’s insanely fast. you can have 20 thoughts right in a row and fit them all between blinks.

We can think faster than we can speak. We speak faster than we can write.

Slowing down to journal, type, or talk something through with a “thought partner” is an insanely useful tactic to slow your thinking down. This works even better if you let that thought partner respond with "what I'm hearing you say is ___, is that accurate?" Now you've got multiple brains processing. Booyah.

This gives you an advantage in seeing gaps you might not have seen.

Thanks to @Cleverlike's comment in our slack community, we learned that some computer programmers use a technique called "Rubber Duck Debugging," where a programmer will literally explain the problem to a rubber duck on their desk to try to help themselves understand the problem better.

Another popular technique for computer programmers is called "pair programming" where two programmers sit together in front of one computer. One types. The other watches and thinks. Two brains are always, always, always better than one.

There's a book called "Thinking Fast And Slow" by Daniel Kahneman. I haven't read it, but I'm assuming it dives into this concept in great detail. Let me know if you end up reading it. I'd love to hear what you learn or if you think I should read it, too.

The moral of the story here is that if you're facing a problem in your life or career, you have more options than just "thinking through it." Try journaling or recruiting a friend to listen and regurgitate your thoughts back to you.

What do you think?

Will you try thought partnering or journaling?