Solving Hard Problems by Talking to Yourself

Most people think that solving a hard problem requires deep silent concentration. We picture someone sitting alone in a quiet room thinking very hard. And sometimes that works. But for the truly stubborn problems the ones that keep you up at night a different approach is often more effective. You have to talk about them.

I don’t mean complaining to a friend or brainstorming in a group. I mean the simple act of explaining the problem out loud from beginning to end to an audience of one. Yourself. This technique is so powerful that programmers have a name for it. They call it rubber duck debugging. When faced with a bug they can't solve they will explain their code line by line to an inanimate rubber duck sitting on their desk. The magic is not in the duck. It’s in the explanation.

Explaining Forces Clarity

When a problem lives only in your head your thoughts can be circular and vague. You can hold contradictory ideas at the same time. You can skim over the parts you don’t fully understand. Your brain is good at creating the illusion of comprehension.

But the moment you decide to verbalize the problem everything changes. You cannot speak in loops. You cannot mumble your way through the fuzzy parts. To explain something you must first structure it. You are forced to build a linear narrative. You have to start at the beginning. You must define the components and how they relate to one another. You have to state your goal and the obstacles in the way.

This process of translation from abstract thought to spoken word is a powerful clarifying filter. It exposes the gaps in your logic. It shines a light on the assumptions you didn't know you were making. Often the solution to the problem becomes obvious once the problem itself has been clearly stated.

The Listener in Your Head

When you speak you implicitly create a listener. Even when you are alone your mind adopts a different mode of operation. It shifts from pure introspection to communication. You start to think about how your words will be perceived. Would this make sense to someone else? Am I explaining this clearly?

This imaginary listener is a powerful tool. They serve as a proxy for an objective point of view. You start to see the problem not just from your own tangled perspective but from the outside. You start to ask the simple questions that your internal monologue skipped over. Why is this part necessary? What is the real goal here? Have I considered this alternative?

Explaining a problem to yourself is like running a simulation of explaining it to someone else. You get most of the benefits of an external sounding board without needing another person. You can do it anytime anywhere. All you need is a private space and the willingness to talk.

How to Talk Through a Problem

There is a simple structure you can follow to make this effective. Start your audio journal by stating the problem as clearly as possible.

The problem I am trying to solve is that our user growth has stalled. The new signups have been flat for three months.

Next explain the background and context. What have you tried so far? What were the results? Be honest about what failed and why you think it failed.

Then break the problem down into its constituent parts. Talk through each one. Don’t be afraid to explore bad ideas or strange tangents. Sometimes saying a bad idea out loud is the quickest way to understand why it’s bad and move on. The goal is not to have a perfect monologue but to externalize your entire thought process.

This is where you can uncover what you truly believe about a situation. The act of speaking bypasses the filters you might apply when writing down your thoughts as we explored in a previous post https://journalofme.com/blog/speaking_is_more_honest_than_writing. You might discover you have been avoiding a particular solution because it’s hard not because it’s wrong.

Finally listen back to what you said. You might not need to. Often the solution appears during the act of speaking. But listening to your own explanation a day later can provide another layer of insight. You hear your own voice with a degree of detachment almost like listening to a stranger. And that stranger might just have the answer you were looking for.

This method isn't just for business or technical problems. It works for personal dilemmas too. Deciding on a career change a difficult conversation or a creative block can all be untangled by explaining them out loud. The next time you feel stuck don't just sit there and think harder. Find a quiet place and start talking.

Try explaining one of your own challenges using the prompt below.