Weekly Reflection #29 - Be the Rubber Duck
Each week, I share one insight. One piece of wisdom. One question to reflect on. (and a little Lagniappe)
Insight
I love solving problems. So when someone brings me one, my first instinct is to hand over the answer. Coaching, mentoring, and being a father have taught me that instinct almost always gets in the way. What people need more than my answer is a rubber duck.
In software, a rubber duck is the thing you explain your problem to, out loud, line by line. It never gives advice; it just waits. More often than not, you hear your own answer before you finish. So when someone comes to me, I try to be the duck. I ask a clarifying question, notice what they keep circling back to, and mostly stay quiet.
It's amazing how much the other person can solve when I get out of their way.
Wisdom
The quality of your attention determines the quality of other people's thinking.
Nancy Kline, Time to Think
Reflection
Where do you jump to advice when someone just needs you to listen?
Lagniappe
- Feeling stuck? If you need someone to talk to, I coach software engineers at Leland, and I'm leading a free workshop on Thursday, July 2nd at 4PM Central: How to Stand Out as a Software Engineer (and Have Fun Doing It). Come hang out and bring your questions.
- Sometimes I just want an ice breaker or a rubber duck when I'm programming. I just published some agent skills that I find useful and I hope you do too
- This week on Book Overflow we round out the Learning DDD book. You probably don't need microservices - Learning Domain-Driven Design by Vlad Khononov.
- As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Reply and let me know what resonates.