"You need a bear"... (Overheard in #svn)

exeunt on 2004-06-03T19:21:17

<rbb_laptop> nevermind, I think I just found my problem. <rbb_laptop> Grr, I've been staring at it for 30 minutes, and it hits me as soon as I post a question. :-( <fitz> you need a bear. <fitz> I used to have a stuffed bear in the office <fitz> and before bugging another engineer, <fitz> you had to "tell it to the bear" <fitz> that is, describe your problem to the bear in detail <fitz> 75% of the time, you figured it out while talking to the bear. :-) <fitz> it really is amazing. <offby1> that's one smart bear.

---

a brick wall

jmm on 2004-06-03T20:57:22

My boss and I used to walk into each other's office saying "I need a brick wall to talk to" with the same meaning. (Sometimes, the person listening would ask a question that directed the person with the problem into the right frame of mind. But usually, just having a listener capable of noticing when you glossed over issues was sufficient to force you to make sure you challenged all your own assumptions as you stated them - i.e. the problem would have been solved [most of the time] if the question had been posed instead to a brick wall.)

The conversations would often have an attention deficit quality - "this could never happen because of that, which *only depends on... oh yeah that's it, bye". The listener might not have the faintest idea of what the problem even was much less the solution, but it was stil solved.

the duck

rjbs on 2004-06-04T07:15:37

Pragmatic Programmer suggests the same sort of things, but s/bear/duck/, specifically rubber.

my duck: So far, so good.