Programmers often discover solutions while explaining a problem to someone else, even to people with no programming knowledge. Describing the code, and comparing to what it actually does, exposes inconsistencies. Explaining a subject also forces the programmer to look at it from new perspectives and can provide a deeper understanding.
I feel like you burned the messenger, somehow.
all that duck did was enable him. it caused me to accept his behavior and allowed me to ignore the situation because I felt someone listened to me.