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Vent: I called rubber duck debugging stupid for 2 years
Last Tuesday my roommate Marcus heard me yelling at my screen and told me to explain my loop out loud to him like he was five. I got 3 sentences in before I heard my own bug, an off by one in my range. I always thought talking to yourself was a joke people put on stickers, but saying it out loud uses a different part of your brain I guess. Anyone else get saved by something this dumb?
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seanlee16d ago
There's actually research on this. I remember reading about a study where people who talked out loud to themselves solved puzzles faster than people who stayed quiet. Something about how speaking forces your brain to put messy thoughts into order, and the act of hearing it back makes gaps jump out at you. Your roommate basically ran you through the poor man's version of what researchers call self-explanation. The weird part is it doesn't even matter if anyone is listening, or if the listener understands code. Your own ears do the work. Two years of calling it stupid and all you needed was Marcus standing there confused for 30 seconds.
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