The Secret Developer Reveals a New Approach to Problem-Solving

Even the best software engineers have bad days, and The Secret Developer is no different. Sometimes the logic my predecessors have used can feel impenetrable and difficult to process. Those comments in the code don’t feel like they help. Yet I still need to push this feature out of the door (yesterday).

Even if I need some help at times, I don’t have a supportive team where I can ask a colleague for help. So, I need something that will help me test my assumptions and think through my logic. In the past, I would use rubber duck debugging to work through my logic as.

That’s not how I do things anymore and I don’t think you should either. This is a technique where you talk through your problem with a rubber duck as if they were a colleague. You don’t waste anyone’s time, you don’t look stupid for being stuck on a trivial problem, and best of all you often come up with the solution in short order.

Happy Days! I used to be able to work through problems without bothering anyone else and feel accomplished when I reached a great solution. This used to be the best approach to problem-solving, no matter how complex the problem.

Many developers used rubber duck debugging in lieu of taking up the time of a coworker. Here is why they decided not to work with colleagues to solve problems, even when they were relatively trivial. As a junior, if I had a…