Girl + Computer = ?

joqueneth:

internetcoffeephone:

In The Pragmatic Programmer by Andrew Hunt and David Thomas (my superviser who is a developer and the sysadmin-developer where I work (both of which are excellent programmers) highly recommend it), Hunt and Thomas recommand every programmer get a rubber ducky for next to their computer. The purpose of the rubber ducky is so that when the programmer has a problem, they talk through it with the rubber ducky first. This avoids the ever-so-common waste of time that is a programmer who goes and talks to a colleague, seeking advice, and the colleague never says (or has to say) anything because the programmer works through his problem while he states it.

One of my professors always told us about this during our second semester in the CS program. I always figured it was just a funny thing to suggest, a joke.
However, now that I’m further in my program and have bigger assignments, I definitely talk with my Pokemon dolls for clarification.

It seems like so much of being a successful programmer is just keeping your ducks in a row (no pun intended).