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Get a rubber duck. Mine is an excellent listener and solves problems that I can't. 
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Does a rubber chicken work? I could wave it over my code
Real programmers use butterflies
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I've never tried it, but the secret with a duck is explaining the problem in detail so that the duck can solve it.
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Hmmm. I'm suspicious of ducks in general. I wonder if one wouldn't lead me astray.
Real programmers use butterflies
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The duck is your alter ego and confidant, so I doubt it!
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Yeah I have one of those. It taught me to read at 3.
A shrink called it a "partially integrated identity" or some such, but they like to label crazy.
I just call it Scout. When it first came to me I didn't give it a name.
It's very helpful, and maybe where most of my intellectual and particularly my analytical heft comes from.
I bury it in the wiring for years at a time but it's still there doing stuff, I'm sure, because I don't get stupid when it's "gone."
Or maybe I'm just loopy. That's as likely. Whatever. It helps me code and build stuff. I like that.
Real programmers use butterflies
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The rubber duck is your familiar, mediating between you and the Powers that enable you to program.
At times the S/N ratio on the channel goes too low, so the Powers cannot get through. It is then that giving your duck some attention (and a small sacrifice, e.g. your firstborn...) can really pay off. Get on the wrong side of your duck, and you will program nevermore!
Is that "New Agey" enough, or should I insert some psychobabble as well?
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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Okay, I can make some sense of that. I would have pictured a cat though. I have a black one who is slightly cross eyed and whose tail and ears are too big for the rest of him. He is my familiar. What do I tell him? 
Real programmers use butterflies
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No, a real chicken is required
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HR warned me off of doing that again. 
Real programmers use butterflies
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That just gets the Ernie voice singing[^] in my head.
Money makes the world go round ... but documentation moves the money.
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As I am perhaps one of the greatest developers of all time, I've never understood the Imposter Syndrome thing? 
In all seriousness, you've written some very cool stuff. How in the world could you ever doubt your competence?
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Thank you. Well I guess we all have a few failed projects under our belt. I can always count on the committee in my head to remind me of that. 
Real programmers use butterflies
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I hate it when people ask me good questions. I like stupid questions that I can answer quickly off the top of my head without thinking. Good questions I have to think about for awhile and maybe even do some research. The only upside of good questions is I usually learn something also.
So many years of programming I have forgotten more languages than I know.
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I've found that in life the right question is worth several right answers.
Real programmers use butterflies
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honey the codewitch wrote: I've found that in life the right question is worth several right answers.
But sadly you don't always get them 
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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honey the codewitch wrote: Conversely, the not so great developers need most of the help.
I'm not sure how to fix that.
At least from the perspective of Q&A, sometimes the answer is clear: euthanasia.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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This reminds me of what my husband used to say back when we were teenagery and he worked helldesk at the local community college.
He said he had a paperclip for rebooting the imacs and an icepick for rebooting their users. 
Real programmers use butterflies
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I was alomost going to post something "he's a man after my own heart", but then I realized that in the case of imacs I'd need to soak in in brine overnight, first.
(Aside from avoiding the waste of a perfectly good paperclip).
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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Actually, it's our future managers ... and developers.
"You still programming? I'm gonna be an Analyst! or manager .."
It was only in wine that he laid down no limit for himself, but he did not allow himself to be confused by it.
― Confucian Analects: Rules of Confucius about his food
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So, my questions is - how do I ask a good question?
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Even the not-so-great developers seem to be in short supply these days. They're increasingly getting drowned out by the "do my work for me" brigade.
IIRC, we used to get the occasional no-effort homework assignment posted between the genuine questions. Recently it seems to be the other way round. And usually multiple copies of the same homework assignment, because half the class is too lazy to think for themselves.
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer
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Hi Richard, I suggest that CP is "reaping the wind" of its laissez-faire culture.
I'd guess "word has spread" (and the search engines put CP front and center) that CP is a "soft touch" ... imho, it is, compared to SO ...
QA posters can, and do, post anything without lifting a finger to even select a few relevant tags.
I used to raise the issue of requiring posters to fill out a simple form before their post was published: gave up on that after several tries. So, you have the spectacle of, often, multiple solutions/comments posted that beg the OP to clarify what their question is about.
Someone may respond to a question with a comment asking for clarification; that doesn't stop other responders from posting what they think are solutions.
Note how few MVP's actually contribute to QA; note how the C# language forum has drifted into being yet-another-QA, with posts about language issues scarcer.
You may think I am complaining ... I'm not. I enjoy responding to questions with what I hope are answers of the same quality as the writing in my book Addison-Wesley published (30+ years ago).
And, I treasure my (peripheral) involvement in this remarkable community !
Most valuable, for me, is learning from people like you, Richard McCutcheon, OriginalGriff, and others, who are so broadly/deeply informed, and up-to-date on all the latest/greatest.
«One day it will have to be officially admitted that what we have christened reality is an even greater illusion than the world of dreams.» Salvador Dali
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Back in February or March, when some of the "numbers" were coming in, and our politicians were arguing that closing borders wouldn't be "Canadian", and others were saying get back to me when it's "10,000" and I went on to predict (pessimistically) it would go to 50,000,000 ...
We've passed 63,000,000.
But, wait, our politicians are still getting high marks (?!)
(I forgot: the Nanny State)
It was only in wine that he laid down no limit for himself, but he did not allow himself to be confused by it.
― Confucian Analects: Rules of Confucius about his food
modified 1-Dec-20 11:10am.
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Gerry Schmitz wrote: We've passed 63,000,000.
Mask sales?
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