Using Someone Else as a Sounding Board for Debugging

A very simple but particularly useful technique for finding the cause of a problem is simply to explain it to someone else. the other person should look over your shoulder at the screen, and nod his or her head constantly (like a rubber duck: bobbing up and down in a bathtub). they do not need to say a word; the simple act of explaining, step by step, what the code is supposed to do often causes the problem to leap off the screen and announce itself.