Yet Another Introvert here. I paired full-time for three years when I worked at ThoughtWorks, and I did not enjoy the forced socialization aspect of it, but I c

Yet Another Introvert here. I paired full-time for three years when I worked at ThoughtWorks, and I did not enjoy the forced socialization aspect of it, but I can't think of a single day where I didn't learn something from my pair. We rotated pairs daily, and tried to keep one individual constant for the duration of a story (the "anchor") while rotating others through so we spread out context across the team. I once read a quote that I like to the effect of (paraphrasing, because I've lost track of the original): "Individual programming optimizes for the convenience of the individual; pair programming optimizes for the health of the team." This resonates with my experience of pairing.