Best debugging tool I've heard of in a long time...
From Greg Wilson (
Helium Blog):
One of computing's many apocryphal stories holds that someone---Brian Kernighan, maybe, or Dennis Ritchie---keeps a rubber duck next to his computer. Whenever a bug takes more than a few minutes to track down, he puts the duck on his desk and explains the problem to it. Why? Because speaking out loud forces you to marshal your thoughts, which in turn highlights any contradictions or missed steps that you hadn't noticed while everything was just swirling around inside your head.
Part of an excellent entry on Essential Equipment. My 10 month old daughter had better watch out, I think her bathtime duck might run away to join me at work :-)