Have you ever been working on a tough puzzle or working through a complex problem and no matter what you do you cannot seem to make progress? Then, on the precipice of giving up, you get up, verbalize it and ‘poof’ a solution is identified! Congrats, you just rubber ducked a solution.

This phenomenon, in the software world, is known as rubber ducking. It’s wonderfully weird, a bit eccentric and powerfully effective; it’s a debugging technique beloved by programmers worldwide. At face value, rubber ducking sounds like something from an ‘Alice in Wonderland’s’ code review session. But before you dismiss it as just developer folklore, there’s real reasoning and even science behind why it helps programmers (or puzzle aficionados) solve complex challenges more effectively.

On this week’s blog we dive into why we use rubber ducking here at STEP and how it benefits both our clients and our team.

What Is Rubber Ducking?

Before we get into the how and why of it, let’s look at what rubber ducking is.

In software engineering, rubber duck debugging (or rubber ducking) is a technique where a developer explains their code line-by-line to an inanimate listener, often, a rubber duck (or a Linux penguin,) with a goal to uncover bugs or logic issues. By verbalizing their thought process, they often ‘hear’ errors they’d previously overlooked.

The term comes from a story in the 1999 book The Pragmatic Programmer by Andrew Hunt and David Thomas. In it, a programmer carries around a rubber duck and debugs code by intentionally talking through each line of code to the duck, and often, solutions emerge in the process. This anecdote resonated with developers and perhaps, because it’s cheap, whimsical, and easy, it grew into a community-wide practice.

In 2018, Stack Overflow even joked about adding a ‘quack helper’ assistant to the site, a tribute to the method’s popularity and also an April 1^st hilarity.

Why Does Talking to a Duck Help?

Rubber ducking works not because ducks secretly understand Python or Java or are up on all the latest open-source options; but because explaining a problem verbally forces clarity and intention, which activates cognitive pathways that silent reading often misses. Here’s how it helps:

Forces You to Slow Down

When forced to talk through each line of code, your brain is compelled to linearize the logic, expressing every step, explicitly. This slows down your thought process and makes assumptions visible.

Engages Different Brain Regions

Speaking engages language and logic centers of the brain in ways internal thought doesn’t. When you verbalize a problem, you’re effectively teaching it to someone else; and teaching is a highly effective way to learn and diagnose errors.

Removes Judgment Pressure

A rubber duck will never judge your mistakes or interrupt you with its own ideas. That ‘non-judgmental listener effect’ lets you explore ideas freely and deeply without worrying about ego or embarrassment.

Comedy or Science?

While rigorous scientific studies specifically on rubber ducking are limited (this is a playful, informal technique after all), researchers have identified that explaining problems to an external listener(human or otherwise) improves comprehension and problem-solving.

For example, educational psychology shows that explaining a concept aloud forces you to confront gaps in your understanding and clarify assumptions before moving forward; often leading to solutions.

In research on debugging practices, clarity and structured walkthroughs of code are correlated with faster bug identification and reduction in logical errors.

When to Talk to The Duck?

Rubber ducking is embarrassingly simple but incredibly effective, especially when:

• You’re stuck on a stubborn bug
• You’re returning to legacy code you didn’t write
• You’re working with parts of a system that feel unclear
• You want to explain and validate logic before asking a colleague for help
• You’re pairing or reviewing code with others

Rubber ducking isn’t a replacement for code reviews or pair programming; it’s a first pass that can prevent needless (and costly) back-and-forth later.

How to Talk to a Duck

Here’s how most developers approach it:

1. Grab your duck (or dinosaur or favourite inanimate listener).
2. Explain what the code should do.
3. Go line by line through what it is actually doing.
4. Pause when something doesn’t make sense — this is often where the bug hides.
5. Celebrate the duck. Quacks encouraged. (if you have a duck who quacks, even better.)
6. Validate your findings.
7. Repeat as needed.

You can do this with any object, a toy, a coffee mug, or even a real live breathing pet; the key is to speak aloud and be intentional.

The STEP Approach to Rubber Ducks

Rubber ducking isn’t just for debugging, here at STEP even our non developers use it.

Our team members apply the rubber ducking principles to aid in:

• Walking through requirements with stakeholders
• Building out the details of a SOW with clients
• Explaining complex logic in code or project reviews
• Breaking down tricky algorithms
• Assisting in communicating a design rationale clearly
• Fixing the readability of a blog or other web content

It’s cost effective, is zero-judgment, and is often more effective than asking a colleague(especially at 2 a.m. when everyone else is asleep). Rubber ducking saves our teams time and our clients money, it is practiced process and efficiency in action.

Our Final Quacks

When rubber ducking is happening live it might look silly, especially in an open office environment. We admit it, it looks a little absurd seeing a grown adult walk around the office talking to a bath toy, but this is clarity, deliberate thinking, and externalizing assumptions in action. Verbalizing reasoning can help your brain (or team) find the bug before their fingers do. I think we can all agree that in business and in life, time is money.

So next time you’re stuck, grab a duck, explain your code(or problem), and let logic do the quacking.

If you’d like help incorporating practical techniques like rubber ducking into your team’s development practices, STEP Software can help you blend proven habits with modern engineering workflows. We’ll even bring our own ducks!