Ask HN: How do you perform “Rubber duck debugging”?

2 points by alykhalid 9 years ago | 2 comments

In particular, what is your preferred method of performing this exercise.

"Rubber duck debugging"[0]

[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_duck_debugging

telebone_man 9 years ago |

I do this with my dog. I pretend she asks "Can you describe the steps to recreate the issue".

And then she just gets in an endless loop of asking "Why?", until I can't explain 'why' any more.

It's at that point I've probably found my issue.

Added bonus. She's happy to sit there and blankly stare at me in confusion whilst I chat away. Good dog!

twobyfour 9 years ago |

For "how should I build this", as opposed to "why isn't it working?", writing documentation helps.

For personal projects, typing up an email to the appropriate google group, explaining the problem and requesting help, helps me solve a problem about 50% of the time.

For work projects, verbal diarrhea into Slack is very effective but interrupts colleagues too much (though it does have the side effect of pulling in help on the occasions you really need it). I've been considering building a bot for that.