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I'm pair programming ambivalent. A lot folks like it. I mostly don't, but I enjoy collaborating more broadly, and sometimes a pairing session can be truly inval

I'm pair programming ambivalent. A lot folks like it. I mostly don't, but I enjoy collaborating more broadly, and sometimes a pairing session can be truly invaluable when the task at hand is right. I think it has many benefits in that at least knowledge isn't entirely siloed with 1 contributor. It's not the silver bullet to solving wider system awareness problems though. >> Not to mention the coveted flow state that most developers look for. That is perhaps the single biggest factor around why I prefer not to pair for the most part. Frankly I just can't think as well about creative, problem solving stuff when I'm pairing. There's also an "enjoyability" issue. If people enjoy pair programming, and this will vary by individual, they'll find ways to keep practicing it even if it's not the most efficient option (and actually there's a good case it is long term cost effective). If people do not enjoy pair programming, they'll find ways to avoid practicing it even if has many economic or systemic benefits. As we often find, it's a people thing: we remain emotion-driven and reward-driven beings and that isn't going to change any time soon.

stevage 5y ago
Yeah, personally I don't particularly like it, because I don't particularly like talking about the coding I'm doing - I like just being in it. But I can totally see that it's very effective and enjoyable for a lot of people.
adregan 5y ago
I really enjoy a pairing or mobbing session, but I haven’t figured out a good way to integrate a key part of my process. I usually attempt an aggressive reshaping commit history as I find it allows me to re-evaluate and improve the code, but it also allows me to craft a PR that can be understood commit by commit (and even split out unrelated work to prevent big PRs). I appreciate reviewing small PRs that tell a story (and revisiting a nice PR years later for context), so I put a lot of effort into it. Often it’s an exercise in tedium that doesn’t really suit 10-15 min handoffs when you’re stuck deep in a rebase and it gets tougher when the commits are all “WIP,” but the biggest thing that bothers me is that doing so often clobbers the other devs contribution if the commits have been sufficiently remixed, and I want their contributions recognized in the history.

stevage 5y ago

Yeah, personally I don't particularly like it, because I don't particularly like talking about the coding I'm doing - I like just being in it. But I can totally see that it's very effective and enjoyable for a lot of people.

adregan 5y ago

I really enjoy a pairing or mobbing session, but I haven’t figured out a good way to integrate a key part of my process. I usually attempt an aggressive reshaping commit history as I find it allows me to re-evaluate and improve the code, but it also allows me to craft a PR that can be understood commit by commit (and even split out unrelated work to prevent big PRs). I appreciate reviewing small PRs that tell a story (and revisiting a nice PR years later for context), so I put a lot of effort into it. Often it’s an exercise in tedium that doesn’t really suit 10-15 min handoffs when you’re stuck deep in a rebase and it gets tougher when the commits are all “WIP,” but the biggest thing that bothers me is that doing so often clobbers the other devs contribution if the commits have been sufficiently remixed, and I want their contributions recognized in the history.