Rubber ducking, writes Charlie Rapple, "is a technique that is commonly used by coders...The premise is simple: when stuck on a problem, the programmer talks through their code line-by-line to a rubber duck. A small, yellow toy, sitting on the edge of the desk, unblinking, unjudgmental, maybe with head slightly cocked in listening mode." I can relate. Not to the duck part - I don't use a duck. If I want an audience that is "inanimate, unspeaking, making no effort" I just livestream my work. There's nobody watching, but the fact that the camera is there makes me speak as I work though things aloud. I have also found in the past that I get the same effect from doing presentations; my best ideas have come to me while working out loud. The secret isn't that the audience is disengaged, it's that you're presenting something in a way that needs to be concise and clear. Related: there was an article titled 'Cognitive Echo: Enhancing think-aloud protocols with LLM-based simulated students' in BERA today, but it's behind a paywall, and thus not doing anyone any good at all.
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