Tom Bouwer
Rubber Ducks: A
Journey
Through
Ludicrosity.
Rubber (Plastic) Ducks
An image of a 3D
printed duck I designed
and printed on a Makerbot
Replicator 2. 2014
How bath toys
redefined how
“Debug”
An image
of a duck
on my laptop. Taken
during a
debugging
session
with code
in wordpress.
2014
I think.
A brief history of Rubber Ducks, and a Project.
Rubber Ducks were invented in the late
19th century, originally solid and intended as
chew toys. Much of their history is unclear and
mysterious, although it is suspected that more
“traditional” Rubber Ducks began to surface in
the 1940’s. They are actually made largely out
of vinyl, but we still call them rubber. In 1970,
the children’s television program Seseme Street
included the famous “Rubber Duck song”. It
was in the top 40 for 7 weeks, peaking at #16.
It is counted as a percussion instrument, and
was categorized as such by the Boston Pops
when they performed it with the cast of the
show.1 2 In 1999, a book called The Pragmatic
Programmer was published, which featured
stories of a programmer who carried a Rubber
Duck with him for the purpose of debugging.3
Starting in 2007 in France, Dutch sculpter
Florentijn Hofman began making sculptures
of large Rubber Ducks which have been seen
in several location in many cities around the
world.4
In late 2014, a project was posed to me
and my classmates. We would find and object,
study said object, and then we would design a
model and 3D print the object, in order to find
out some unforseen uses of the 3D printer and
the secrets held within the technology. I never
intended to study Rubber Ducks. However, because of a conversation I had about the phenomenon of Rubber Duck Debugging, I found
myself beginning a strange process which
would dominate my first months at college.
A Rubber Duck
in a pile
of misprints.
“Abandoned”, Tim Long, 2014
An image of and abandoned
rubber duck factory in
Cleaveland, Ohio.
Rubber Duck Debugging, and how I
learned of it.
Rubber Duck Debugging was first mentioned
in the book The Pragmatic Programmer. It is
in a story where a programmer would carry
with him a Rubber Duck, and then explain the
code to the Duck, lin-by-line. There is something happening during this process that makes
it not only an effective means of Debugging,
but also of Problem Solving in general. Firstly,
when explaining something, people think of
things differently as opposed to when they are
just thinking about them. It’s the fundamental
basis of a teaching method developed by Jean
Pol-Martin.5 This process isn’t limited to Rubber Ducks. There are stories of this method for
problem solving being used with cardboard cutouts of celebrities, pictures of people, pets, and
actual dead ducks.6
When I first heard of this phenomenon, I
read about it in an image on the micro-blogging
website, Tumblr. I was pretty convinced it wasn’t
a real thing, and as such, I paid it no mind. Rubber Ducks wouldn’t enter my mind for another
three weeks. We were studying How Things
Shape the Mind by Lambros Malafouris. At this
point, I had been considering what my project
would be for about a week. Specifically, the
part of the book we were reading talked about
this sort of connection between cognition and
the environment. I had come to the conclusion,
through conversation with my peers, that Malafouris was writing about how our conciousness
is actually an amalgamation of our minds and
our environment. Cognition is the interaction
between the two, and a large portion of thought
is the “outsourcing” (I like to say) of thought to
something else. It is through speaking that we
learn. It was at this point when I remembered
the Ducks. I spoke with one of my professors
about them, who said to me “Tom, you’ve got to
write about that.” So I did. I did a small amount
of research and wrote about it in a blog post,
assigned to us weekly. Somewhere between me
beginning my research, and posting that blog
post, I had become extremely curious about
Rubber Ducks, what they were, why they were
in popular conciousness, and how 3D printing
could change (and hopefully improve) them.
Suddenly, and without my knowing it, Rubber
Ducks had become my project. This is the story
of the idea of Ducks, how they changed my life,
and how I came to fully learn the meaning of
the word “Ludicrous”.
The Curious Process of Researching Bath
Toys.
that children under 18 months of age should
not come into contact with the Duck. This is
something I registered, but not something I
would realize for another two weeks. At this
point in the project, I wasn’t asking myself
“Why do we have Rubber Ducks if they are so
dangerous?” I was asking “Why would they
have Rubber Ducks specifically in the title?”
The answer I came to has to do with the third
book.
The aforementioned warning.
A picture I took while considering the environmental impact
of Rubber Ducks.
So, my quest began. At first, I was worried. I
didn’t think I would find any information about
Rubber Ducks or what their place in society
was. It was at this point that I would first come
into contact with something of a theme for the
project. I was very wrong.
Rubber Ducks aren’t exactly the subject of
serious debate. They’re more viewed as ridiculous, pointless, bath toys. As such, there is not
an incredible wealth of resources from which
to pull information about them. However, I
found that those sources I could find were
not only extensive, but exactly what I needed.
There were five main places I could find Rubber
Ducks. Three of them were books, in which two
included Rubber Ducks in the title. One was a
series of sculptures by a dutch artist. The last
was a previously mentioned song from a children’s television show.
The first book is the previously mentioned
The Pragmatic Programmer. As I’ve already
explained Rubber Duck Debugging, I will go to
the next subject.
The second book is Slow Death by Rubber
Duck: The Secret Danger of Everyday Things.7
It is a book about the dangerous chemicals
we come into contact with on a regular basis.
Rubber Ducks, being the titular “dangerous object” are no exception to this. Modern Rubber
Ducks are dangerous enough that when I wen
tout to buy one myself, it came with a warning
The third book I researched was the aptly
named Moby-Duck: The True Story of 28,800
Bath Toys Lost at Sea and of the Beachcombers, Oceanographers, Environmentalists,
and Fools, Including the Author, Who Went
in Search of Them.8 It is the story of a large
group of Rubber Ducks which were washed
overboard and away from a freighter in the
early 1990’s, in the middle of the Pacific
Ocean. The author, Donovan Hohn, read
about this, and decided to write about what
happened to these Ducks. He found himself going on a journey for about three year,
which took him around the world, and even
to the Antarctic. This, in combination with the
second book, is indicitave of the larger environmental impact that humans have had on
the plant, but I would, again, not fully realize
this until two weeks later. At this point, I was
still asking “Why Rubber Ducks?” I thought I
had found my answer. Rubber Ducks can effectively pull people in. People see something
that says “Rubber Duck” on it, and they get
curious. They ask themselves “Well what’s this
ridiculous thing about?”. That’s why Rubber
Ducks were used, because it’s funny that they
would be critically analyzed or reasearched.
Why would it be funny, though? It seems perfectly reasonable.
When talking about the Rubber Duck sculptures he was putting up, Florentijn Hofman
said “I see it as an adult thing. It makes you
feel young again.”, claiming that the reason for
putting up the rubber duck sculptures was that
he hoped to make people nostalgic for their
youth. That is why Rubber Ducks are funny.
When somebody sees a Rubber Duck, they
think about childhood. Rubber Ducks are largely
symbolic of nostalgia and childhood innocence.
That’s why people are curious and interested
about what happened to thousands of them
floating at sea, it’s why a title about them killing
us slowly is silly and ridiculous, and it’s why the
story of programmers legitimately using Rubber
Ducks to debug their code is hilarious and interesting. I had found why Rubber Ducks existed.
Suddenly, to me, it seemed like Rubber Ducks
were unbelievably important. Soon, however, I
would realize something about Rubber Ducks,
their ability to change, and a fundamental flaw
in my thought process.
“Washed up
Ducks” 2014
An image from
The Sun of
a bunch
of Ducks
washed onto
a beach.
Rubber Ducks, their ability to change, and a
fundamental flaw in my thought process.
At this point, I was satisfied with my research.
I had come to a conclusion that I was satisfied
with. There was just one thing that was bothering me. That I hadn’t really thought about
the environmental effects of Rubber Ducks.
“Surely, that couldn’t change my opinion of
them that much.” This is when the theme of me
being wrong, again, reared its ugly head. Rubber Ducks are made up of materials that don’t
biodegrade. This is an obvious, but important
point to establish. This means that if they’re
thrown away, they end up in landfills or floating
in oceans. This would be a considerably smaller
problem if people didn’t, as I previously established, like them so much. Because, however,
they are so popular, they’re everywhere. Even
worse, people don’t actually care that much
about them, because their value is largely symbolic. That’s why, for example, there’s an
abandoned Rubber Duck factory in Cleaveland that’s covered in Rubber Ducks. They’re
used in these massive races where they
float down huge rivers. That man who went
to track down the Ducks washed overboard
in the early 90’s found them in Antarcitca.
Clearly, the environmental effects of Rubber
Ducks is real, and definitely a problem. It
was at this point when I though to myself,
“Aha! This is where the marvelous technology of 3D printing can save the day!” Here’s
the problem: It didn’t. PLA, while better
than the Vinyl that Rubber Ducks are currently made of, doesn’t completely biodegrade, so the problem of the environmental
impact doesn’t completely go away. On top
of that, regular Rubber Ducks are both easier to get (on account of needing 3D printers
for the printed ducks), and “friendlier” than
my design.
An image of
the model I
made of a
Rubber Duck.
3D printing barely changes Rubber
Ducks at all. It didn’t make them better. It
just made them different. I found myself
regretting printing out the model. I presented my model, and the print, claiming that
“Rubber Ducks are kinda pointless” and “I
wish I had actually thought more about this
and chosen something worthwhile.” I had
fallen victim to the ludicrous. Many of us
find ourselves doing this. Just like the people who read Slow Death by Rubber Duck
and Moby-Duck, I had been pulled in by the
Ducks, and the ridiculousness of them. I
don’t consider critically the problems with,
say, doing a legitimate project about Rubber
Ducks. I was really beating myself up over it.
After my presentation, I decided to speak to
the same professor with whom I’d originally
talked about Rubber Ducks. I wanted to ask
her what she thought about the conclusion
I’d come to. Her response made me stop,
think, and do exactly what I had been regretting
not doing before.
“Why didn’t you talk about the fact that
Programmers talk to Rubber Ducks?”
I don’t know why I didn’t talk about it. Perhaps if I had, I would’ve given a better presentation. Maybe I would have designed the Duck
differently. However, having thought about it,
having really, critically, thought about it, I have
come to a couple of conclusions.
I never really made a habit about thinking
critically of what I was doing. It’s gotten me
into some weird situations before, but never
quite this strange. Critically analyzing Rubber Ducks is the kind of thing people end up
doing in sitcoms, not in real life. In a way, my
conclusion that Rubber Ducks were ridiculous
and pointless made sense. A ludicrous project
comes to a ludicrous conclusion. “Rubber Ducks
are pointless, they’ve always been pointless,
and they’re unlikely to change in the future.”
At the end of the day, it’s just not true. Sure,
the symbolic value from Rubber Ducks breaks
down slowly and affects us negatively like the
Ducks themselves, but programmers still talk
to Ducks. Maybe there are better ways. Maybe
they should be using more ecological means to
problem-solve, but they do it. To them, Rubber
Ducks aren’t pointless. So who am I to judge
them so? Rubber Ducks are a cognitive tool. In
a way, this project about Rubber Ducks was, in
itself, a Rubber Duck for me. To conclude, I’ve a
final (I hope) statement to make on the subject
of Rubber Ducks: they’re really quite silly and
we’d all be better off for getting rid of the ridiculous yellow bastards.
An image
I manipulated for
the sole
purpose of
maing Rubber Ducks
seem more
Ridiculous.
1.“Rubber Duck Debugging.” 2014. Accessed
October 21. http://www.rubberduckdebugging.
com/.
2.“Rubber Duck | The National Toy Hall of
Fame.” 2014. Accessed December 7. http://
www.toyhalloffame.org/toys/rubber-duck.
3.Hunt, Andrew. 2000. The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master. Reading,
Mass: Addison-Wesley.
4.“Hong Kong’s Giant Rubber Duck.” 2014.
CNN. Accessed November 2. http://www.cnn.
com/2013/05/02/travel/hong-kong-giant-duck/
index.html.
5.“The Relative Benefits of Learning by Teaching and Teaching Expectancy.” 2014. Accessed
October 21. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0361476X13000209.
6. “Hwrnmnbsol - Ask the Duck.” 2014. Accessed October 21. http://hwrnmnbsol.livejournal.com/148664.html.
7.Smith, Rick, and Bruce Lourie. 2011. Slow
Death by Rubber Duck: The Secret Danger of
Everyday Things. Reprint edition. Berkeley, CA:
Counterpoint.
8. Hohn, Donovan. 2011. Moby-Duck: The True
Story of 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at Sea and of the
Beachcombers, Oceanographers, Environmentalists, and Fools, Including the Author, Who
Went in Search of Them. New York: Viking.
“I have to write about this,” She said to Perry. “It’s part of the
story.”
-Makers, 81, Doctorow
Why do we tell others about what we’re working on? In the classroom,
students would tell other students about their designs. There’s a
method of debugging called “rubber ducking” in which a coder explains coding to a rubber duck, because coding is so logical a process that going through it allows the mind to pick up the errors.
When we talk to others, explain to others, show our work to others,
it’s part of thinking. It’s outsourcing our mental processes, and
extending our mind into those we interact with, in order to think
more efficiently and effectively.