Design fable: the ducks in AI

Reframing from a sitting duck to a rubber duck

A duck may glide graciously across the water, but underwater is the frantic kicking of its feet. The Stanford Duck Syndrome is an expression that originated at Stanford University about students presenting a calm and relaxed posture while actually being anxious to survive the pressures of a tough school environment.

The same can be applied to social media when users portray a curated image of themselves but, in reality, are having trouble making ends meet.

Sitting Duck

Or, as designers, we have to deal with ourselves as imposters as we pile unrealistically high standards on ourselves. The problem intensifies if topics like artificial intelligence (AI) and job replacements coerce people to act towards what their companies and teams are expecting from them.

The truth is that even company executives are having an extremely hard time decoding the rapid changes to technology and their environment.

In a podcast with Brene Brown and futurist Amy Webb, Webb acknowledged we are living in one of the most complex operational environments in the last two decades. This is because, unlike typical super cycles of a dominant technology, Webb predicts that there are three technologies at the same time: AI, wearables, and biotechnology.

The term generation transition, or Gen T, describes a period when we are going through an unprecedented amount of change faster than we are probably capable of managing. In other words, all of us are sitting ducks, trying to stay calm during a period of transition.

How, then, can we navigate the stormy seas of change?

Interestingly, there is another duck that could help.

And the story goes like this:

While an undergraduate at Imperial College in London, Dave did a lot of work with a research assistant named Greg Pugh, one of the best developers Dave has known. For several months, Greg carried around a small yellow rubber duck, which he’d place on his terminal while coding. It was a while before Dave had the courage to ask...

Why the rubber duck?

While the story originated from The Pragmatic Programmer by David Thomas and Andrew Hunt, the concept of speaking your technical problems to a rubber duck became a popular practice among developers, known as rubber duck debugging.

The premise is simple. There are times when problems resolve themselves after speaking to a listening co-worker, but when your co-worker isn’t available, a rubber duck may just be enough as a prop to prompt you to speak your mind.

You might think a GPT agent could work as a good substitute, but the trouble with a chatbot is the earnest response in anticipation of adding value. And that’s because of its banal command-line chat interface, like ChatGPT. Without any output, the human mind is left wondering whether the receiver is listening. With too much output, the human mind is also left wondering whether the receiver is listening.

Any inanimate object will do, but what I’ve found to work better are objects with anatomical or facial features. Coincidentally, a rubber duck was chosen, probably with this in mind, which helped make it into a digital meme that could easily spread across the developer community.

As designers, we need to steer into the skid in our lives. We need to navigate the currents, regardless how turbulent the waters are. We need to recognise that everyone is going through the same chaotic environment. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.

Instead, focus on the now. Let’s use rubber ducks to debug the uncertainties in our lives. As companies continue to compete with AI, we too have the ability to adapt, by using existing frameworks, or creating new ones to make sense of the world.

And over time, we as designer will take any challenge, including super cycles, like a duck to water. We will discover that we are naturally good at challenges.

Read on: The original version of this article is on UX Collective.

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