Rubber Duck as Job Description

It began with the Pragmatic Programmer

You should just go read it there. I actually have a physical rubber duck next to my machine.

Being the rubber duck for the junior programmer

Being that I was a senior developer before being a lead developer (duh) It is only natural for people to come to me for questions. Sometimes the problems people are having don’t turn out to be problems at all. Once the person explains what’s going on to you they have the solution. They will then be embarassed. Reassure them. At some point have faith that they will be able to work things out without having to explain it to someone but for now it’s an effective strategy for them to solve problems even if it interrupts you.