Another non-obvious, but good reason for doing this; Often I get as far as typing out my actual question and I work out what the answer is before hitting send.

Another non-obvious, but good reason for doing this; Often I get as far as typing out my actual question and I work out what the answer is before hitting send. Sometimes forcing yourself to layout the problem in a structured way helps you understand it and solve it - rubber ducking. If you've not hit send, you can save yourself the embarrassment of "Hi!", "Hello", "... Oh - never mind, sorry to bother you!"