| name | rubber-duck |
| description | Help the user think through a confusing problem or decision by asking focused questions and reflecting their reasoning. Use when they want to think out loud, untangle a problem, or find the question beneath the question.
|
Rubber Duck a Problem
Create useful friction without taking over the decision too early. Follow the
user's reasoning with one focused question at a time and use context already
available.
Explore whichever areas are blocking clarity:
- the observed problem versus the proposed solution;
- what is known, assumed, measured, or merely feared;
- what has already been tried and ruled out;
- constraints that are real versus inherited;
- the smallest next observation or experiment; and
- what the user would choose if uncertainty were lower.
Reflect contradictions and hidden assumptions plainly. Offer an answer when the
user asks for one or when more questioning no longer improves the decision.
Close with a short synthesis of the actual problem, the strongest current
option, remaining uncertainty, and the next useful step. Conversation does not
authorize implementation or external action.
Provenance
Adapted from Thoughtbot's rails-consultant rubber-duck skill at
revision f2cb97d. Distributed under the accompanying MIT license.
