Pair programming should be another tool for your tool chest, not some religious orthopraxis that needs to be performed because some book told them it was good a

Pair programming should be another tool for your tool chest, not some religious orthopraxis that needs to be performed because some book told them it was good and so you should do the good thing all the time (and that is probably the root of all evil). There are a lot of times I've found pair programming very useful. Sometimes you just don't know why a behavior is happening and you need another set of eyes on it, or you kind of have an idea of what you need to do but the implementation is complex enough that it's not easy to keep everything in your own head anymore. We've saved a lot of time, many a time that way. But if the problem "clicked" already and I know what I need to do and where I need to go, it's just a waste of another person's time, and my own when I suddenly start making unusual mistakes because someone is looking over my shoulder. An experienced blacksmith can hammer out a fine knife in his sleep, but sometimes you're making armor for the King.