# "Carboard Programmer" debugging. Is there a more generic term for this phenomena?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carboard-programmer-debugging-is-there-a-more-generic-term-for-this-phenomena/702774>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 28, 2014, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carboard-programmer-debugging-is-there-a-more-generic-term-for-this-phenomena/702774 "2014-10-28T17:03:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\
**Post date:** [October 30, 2014, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carboard-programmer-debugging-is-there-a-more-generic-term-for-this-phenomena/702774/21 "2014-10-30T10:26:19Z")

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It doesn’t require any understanding on the part of the person or object you’re talking to. I’ve had people come up to me, start explaining something and, before I can even ask any questions, they stop and say “never mind, I just realized what’s wrong”. This sometimes happens before I have a clue what they’re talking about.

Granted, there’s a psychological benefit in your belief that they understand. You’d probably feel kind of foolish trying to explain a problem with a regular expression to a janitor. I suppose if there’s no one around who would understand and you can’t see yourself talking to a rubber duck (I’m not sure that would work for me) you can try typing out the question with the intent of posting it someplace like stackoverflow or even on Straighdope.

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**Author:** ![HipGnosis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/76d3ee/32.png) [@HipGnosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HipGnosis)\
**Post date:** [October 30, 2014, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carboard-programmer-debugging-is-there-a-more-generic-term-for-this-phenomena/702774/22 "2014-10-30T21:11:00Z")

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It’s called ‘Rubber Ducking’ and I heard of it years ago - not for programming but for creativity and/or problem solving.

The oldest posting google could quickly find is from '05; [Creating Passionate Users: Rubberducking and Creativity](http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2005/01/rubberducking_a.html)

Both sounding it out and hearing yourself say it uses different parts of the brain than silently working on a problem (or program).

A rubber duck works nicely because the ‘thoughts’ figuratively bounce off it and back to you.

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**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\
**Post date:** [October 30, 2014, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carboard-programmer-debugging-is-there-a-more-generic-term-for-this-phenomena/702774/23 "2014-10-30T23:26:05Z")

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I always thought it was a “sounding board”

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