My team recently started doing more pair programming and opinions are split. Some people find it exhausting, others say it's the most productive they've ever been.
Personally, I love it for:
- Onboarding new team members
- Tackling gnarly bugs
- Designing complex features
But I prefer solo work for:
- Routine tasks
- When I need deep focus time
- Exploratory/research work
Where do you all land on this?
Comments (3)
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I pair for about 30% of my work time and it's the sweet spot. Full-time pairing burned me out, but occasional pairing levels up the whole team.
Mob programming is worth trying too. We do it for architecture decisions and it's surprisingly efficient. Everyone walks away aligned.
Async pair programming via detailed PR reviews gives you 80% of the benefits with more scheduling flexibility. Works great for remote teams.