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I'm sorry, but I don't agree at all. Part of writing good software is the ability to interact with people. That requires certain social abilities and the abili

by kalleth 13y ago

I'm sorry, but I don't agree at all. Part of writing good software is the ability to interact with people. That requires certain social abilities and the ability to talk confidently to people about code, the same as pair programming. Truly introverted developers may write elegant and beautiful code, but they generally need an abstraction layer between them and the user/customer, which can cause the most beautiful code to be wrong, because it doesn't fulfil the requirement. Pairing with people improves code quality by forcing you to explain your decisions, allowing you a better understanding of what you write, sharing knowledge of the codebase across the team, and preventing tangents that aren't what the client wants. It's not just about being more productive -- my personal opinion is it's actually slower than 2 developers working separately -- but that doesn't make it less worthwhile.

kelnos 13y ago
I think you're missing the point of the article. The core of it is essentially: "being happy is one of the most important things in my life, and pair programming would make me unhappy; therefore I will not do it." Yes, he does try to rationalize a little bit here and there, but overall I think that's it. I don't at all believe that pair programming necessarily gives you a better end product. I think it can, but I think it depends a lot on the project and individuals involved. Personally I'm not a fan. I'm not quite the hater that the OP is, but I, too, would likely look for a new job if my company suddenly required regular pair programming of everyone. I think I'm pretty damn good at what I do. That's obviously a subjective statement, but I could back it up with some facts that would seem to indicate I know what I'm doing. If I paired with someone on certain projects, would it create a better outcome? I'm not sure. Maybe it would. Maybe it wouldn't. But I really don't care, because I'm certain I wouldn't enjoy the process. Does that potentially limit my greatness as a developer? Maybe. Maybe not. But that's where the happiness thing comes in. If pairing truly could make me a better developer, and there's nothing else that could, then I'm honestly totally fine not being the best developer I could be, because I wouldn't be happy while practicing my craft. As an aside: I'm talking about two peers of roughly the same skill pairing. I'd be happy to pair with a junior dev for the purposes of mentorship or knowledge transfer. Actually, I think pairing with anyone for the purpose of knowledge transfer is probably a good thing. I just wouldn't enjoy pairing as a fundamental part of working on a project.
JoeAltmaier 13y ago
You are falling right into the trap of dismissing all non-agile PP people as 'cowboys'. Its unfair to go from 'don't want to spend the day explaining myself to a newbie and disrupting my train of though' to 'total introvert loose cannon'

by kalleth 13y ago

kelnos 13y ago

I think you're missing the point of the article. The core of it is essentially: "being happy is one of the most important things in my life, and pair programming would make me unhappy; therefore I will not do it." Yes, he does try to rationalize a little bit here and there, but overall I think that's it. I don't at all believe that pair programming necessarily gives you a better end product. I think it can, but I think it depends a lot on the project and individuals involved. Personally I'm not a fan. I'm not quite the hater that the OP is, but I, too, would likely look for a new job if my company suddenly required regular pair programming of everyone. I think I'm pretty damn good at what I do. That's obviously a subjective statement, but I could back it up with some facts that would seem to indicate I know what I'm doing. If I paired with someone on certain projects, would it create a better outcome? I'm not sure. Maybe it would. Maybe it wouldn't. But I really don't care, because I'm certain I wouldn't enjoy the process. Does that potentially limit my greatness as a developer? Maybe. Maybe not. But that's where the happiness thing comes in. If pairing truly could make me a better developer, and there's nothing else that could, then I'm honestly totally fine not being the best developer I could be, because I wouldn't be happy while practicing my craft. As an aside: I'm talking about two peers of roughly the same skill pairing. I'd be happy to pair with a junior dev for the purposes of mentorship or knowledge transfer. Actually, I think pairing with anyone for the purpose of knowledge transfer is probably a good thing. I just wouldn't enjoy pairing as a fundamental part of working on a project.

JoeAltmaier 13y ago

You are falling right into the trap of dismissing all non-agile PP people as 'cowboys'. Its unfair to go from 'don't want to spend the day explaining myself to a newbie and disrupting my train of though' to 'total introvert loose cannon'