The Rubber Duck Needed A Cache Invalidation Strategy
A small note on why debugging conversations work better when the object answers back.
The oldest debugging trick is still one of the best because it forces shape onto fog. Explain the bug to something with no patience and no context. If the explanation turns into a haunted family tree of assumptions, there is your bug report.
I have started treating AI assistants the same way, except the duck talks back and occasionally suggests replacing the floor. The useful part is not authority. It is friction. A decent assistant makes you name the invariant, point at the boundary, and admit whether the cache key is actually a cache key or just a little wish in a trench coat.
The trick is to keep ownership of the final call. Let the tool ask rude questions. Let it write the boring harness. Then read the diff like it came from a junior engineer with supernatural typing speed and no production context.