4 ms·

Agreed, what a disappointing argument. Personally I love pairing -- I've learned a lot from pairing with others over the course of my career. Earlier in my car

Agreed, what a disappointing argument. Personally I love pairing -- I've learned a lot from pairing with others over the course of my career. Earlier in my career, seeing how others worked went a long way towards improving my own workflows. I think there are some valid criticisms to be made against mandated pair programming. In some circumstances, such as thinking through a solution on the fly to a subtle bug or challenging data problem, I will usually need some alone time with the problem to come up with anything worthwhile. I'm introverted, so having someone on a screen sharing session or sitting next to me (sometimes) carries a burden that will probably reduce my creative output. But that's not always the case! Sometimes it's great having someone to point out lapses in reasoning or suggest approaches I wouldn't have thought of, or to be that person for someone else. Anyway, I only thought to mention that because the angles given in TFA were so disappointing and also because I have seen some job ads that mention something to the effect that all programming that happens in that shop is pair-programming, and while I love pair-programming, that sounds like a special kind of hell I would love very much to avoid. But then, I've never worked in such a shop -- maybe it's great, even if it's probably not for me?

shepardrtc 5y ago
> I'm introverted, so having someone on a screen sharing session or sitting next to me (sometimes) carries a burden that will probably reduce my creative output. Early in my career - in a 4 person shop - I had a manager that mandated it. He was very extroverted and always talking. Pair programming was very difficult for me because my attention always shifted to him and any complex thoughts about the code would be wiped clean from my mind as he went off into some ridiculous rant. The conversations that weren't about random stuff usually went like this: "Are you watching?" "Yes" "Did I make a mistake?" "No" "Did I make a mistake?" "No" "Did I make a mistake?" "No" "Yes I did" "..." He gave up after a while, thankfully. Pair programming is definitely not for me. But I'd love to work in shared IDE on different parts of the code. That seems fun - as long as there isn't a lot of talking.
- skeeter2020 5y ago
  this is more like what the author described as pairing than what I would hope it is like. I view the ideal (and try to make my sessions) more like translating two people working at a whiteboard to programming. It's tough to get it right though.
vidarh 5y ago
Personally I've turned down jobs at places which require pair programming because it drains me. There's no way I can sustain it for very long. I'm happy to do it occasionally to transfer knowledge, but it slows me down massively because it totally changes my thought processes when I'm constantly aware of another person there with me. I wonder how significant the effect of mandating it is on the personalities you're able to hire. Many of my by far most productive developers have been introverts like me who'd likely not to consider jobs in those kinds of environments.

shepardrtc 5y ago

> I'm introverted, so having someone on a screen sharing session or sitting next to me (sometimes) carries a burden that will probably reduce my creative output. Early in my career - in a 4 person shop - I had a manager that mandated it. He was very extroverted and always talking. Pair programming was very difficult for me because my attention always shifted to him and any complex thoughts about the code would be wiped clean from my mind as he went off into some ridiculous rant. The conversations that weren't about random stuff usually went like this: "Are you watching?" "Yes" "Did I make a mistake?" "No" "Did I make a mistake?" "No" "Did I make a mistake?" "No" "Yes I did" "..." He gave up after a while, thankfully. Pair programming is definitely not for me. But I'd love to work in shared IDE on different parts of the code. That seems fun - as long as there isn't a lot of talking.

skeeter2020 5y ago
this is more like what the author described as pairing than what I would hope it is like. I view the ideal (and try to make my sessions) more like translating two people working at a whiteboard to programming. It's tough to get it right though.

vidarh 5y ago

Personally I've turned down jobs at places which require pair programming because it drains me. There's no way I can sustain it for very long. I'm happy to do it occasionally to transfer knowledge, but it slows me down massively because it totally changes my thought processes when I'm constantly aware of another person there with me. I wonder how significant the effect of mandating it is on the personalities you're able to hire. Many of my by far most productive developers have been introverts like me who'd likely not to consider jobs in those kinds of environments.