I love when I can answer my own questions before I ask you guys

[richard rehl]

I'm just sayin'... I almost bothered you with questions about casting unknown types and accessing static methods, and figured it out on my own.

Almost makes me think I have a chance at learning this stuff

[Tim McGuire]

richard rehl wrote:I'm just sayin'... I almost bothered you with questions about casting unknown types and accessing static methods, and figured it out on my own.

Almost makes me think I have a chance at learning this stuff

I must have typed hundreds of questions into javaranch and before submitting I have to write: "I've tried....."
and more times than not, I come up with something I haven't tried yet.

[Ernest Friedman-Hill]

Congratulations! Yes, I know the feeling.

Very often, the act of explaining something to someone else is enough for you to figure out the problem. This has been called the "rubber duck effect" -- you can explain your problem to an inanimate object like a rubber duck, and you still receive the benefit.

[richard rehl]

Ernest Friedman-Hill wrote:Congratulations! Yes, I know the feeling.

Very often, the act of explaining something to someone else is enough for you to figure out the problem. This has been called the "rubber duck effect" -- you can explain your problem to an inanimate object like a rubber duck, and you still receive the benefit.

...except, more often than not, I feel like the rubber duck.

[Tim McGuire]

Ernest Friedman-Hill wrote:Congratulations! Yes, I know the feeling.

Very often, the act of explaining something to someone else is enough for you to figure out the problem. This has been called the "rubber duck effect" -- you can explain your problem to an inanimate object like a rubber duck, and you still receive the benefit.

A former boss of mine called this the "Nodding Dummy". He'd sit there and nod while I explained a problem to him. He didn't understand a word, but I was often able to work it out for myself.

[W. Joe Smith]

That's part of the reason most of the people I went to college with thought I was crazy! I would go to the computer lab to do some coding homework, and would proceed to talk to myself for the majority of the time I was in there. Most of the talking would end with me hitting myself in the head and saying "I'm dumb..." when I figured out my stupid mistakes. And, more than once, I might have begged the computer to work.....

[Henry Wong]

W. Joe Smith wrote:That's part of the reason most of the people I went to college with thought I was crazy! I would go to the computer lab to do some coding homework, and would proceed to talk to myself for the majority of the time I was in there.

For the really tough problems (which is rare in frequency), when trying to work out the design, or trying to work out the edge conditions, I have to talk to myself while walking. Colleagues who know me, just get use to this, but new employees tend to get freaked out when someone walks by their cubical, about a hundred times a day, mumbling to himself.

Of course, currently, I work from home, so no freaking people out at the moment....

Henry

[Jeanne Boyarsky]

Henry Wong wrote:For the really tough problems (which is rare in frequency), when trying to work out the design, or trying to work out the edge conditions, I have to talk to myself while walking. Colleagues who know me, just get use to this, but new employees tend to get freaked out when someone walks by their cubical, about a hundred times a day, mumbling to himself.

I think when I walk too. This has been a problem lately as I've encountered too many people in the hallway that wanted to discuss something and couldn't get the uninterrupted time. I wound up sitting in a quiet spot (that was not my cube), but it wasn't as effective. I think I may have to leave the floor to walk!

[Jesper de Jong]

richard rehl wrote:...except, more often than not, I feel like the rubber duck.

But isn't it nice that you can help other people without any effort at all?

At the project where I'm working on now, we do code reviews. Before you check in your code in the version control system, you have to have another developer review it, by explaining him what you did. We frequently experience the rubber duck effect here.

[Bert Bates]

An old Go (the game) master taught us a strategy that can also work well with software design...

When you're imagining a strategy attempt to explain it - if you can't explain it without laughter ensuing you probably have to go back to the drawing board.