I have a love-hate relationship with confessional debugging. You know, when you go to someone else for help and, in the process of explaining your problem, find the solution yourself. I love it because it solves the problem, and I hate it because I always feel slightly embarassed in front of the other person. I've found a bit of a compromise though: mailing lists, specifically those related to the problem I'm trying to solve. I don't know how many times the act of writing the details of my problem down in my request for help has forced me to see the problem in a different light and craft a solution. I generally decide to reexamine my problem more thoroughly when I remember that the person "on the other end of the line" is going to scrutinize not only my problem, but the efforts I went to to solve it before I came to them.