Hi all,
Who’s your "rubber duck" during a PhD?
I explain: In software engineering, people often use a "rubber duck" (or some stand-in) to talk through ideas out loud. I feel like in a PhD you kind of need a person for that, someone to bounce messy ideas off, ask naive questions, etc.
I’m in theoretical CS, and I initially thought my supervisors would fill that role, but our weekly meetings are mostly about reviewing polished work (papers, proofs, etc.), not brainstorming. When I try to discuss half-baked ideas, it doesn’t really land well.
I also don’t feel super comfortable asking "basic" questions there as I sometimes get the sense I’m being judged for things I "should" already know.
My group isn’t really in my area, and the one close person has a reputation for scooping, so I’ve been avoiding that. At this point, my "rubber duck" is basically LLMs… which feels a bit sad.
Do you have a go-to person, or do you just figure things out solo?