Yeah, I've done this a few times, and it really helps with my understanding of the code. Often I have found that colleagues or managers view the time as wasted, and I get comments such as "Why did you waste time rewriting that code?", and my replies of "So I could understand it and make the code clearer at the same time" falls on deaf ears. But definitely a good technique, thanks for tip :)

That's a good suggestion for small to medium codebase. In huge codebase, it's not feasible but explaining to others (like colleagues or interns or friends(oss repos not proprietary stuff)) usually helps me a lot.

Like talking to a duck.

Most colleagues (even developers) walk away in boredom as soon as the discussion gets too deep. I do understand though as they are happy to help me, but when it gets too deep they feel they are doing the work for me

Oh, that's sad. Most of the time, even if the other person isn't listening - it usually helps at lot talking out, you know - just clears up thoughts.

Yes it definitely helps me when I try to explain it, so that’s something

Remember: if you rewrite it, you own it.