{"id":733,"date":"2008-11-21T22:45:32","date_gmt":"2008-11-21T21:45:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/?p=733"},"modified":"2010-02-06T21:38:13","modified_gmt":"2010-02-06T20:38:13","slug":"pair_programming_and_pond_size","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/2008\/11\/21\/pair_programming_and_pond_size\/","title":{"rendered":"Pair programming and pond size"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nI found a blog post about pair programming<\/a>. The post itself wasn’t anything special (talking about how the names Pair Programming and especially Extreme Programming might scare away conservative managers). But I found the comments interesting, and I could really sympathise with several of the commenters who do not like pair programming.\n<\/p>\n

\nI have tried pair programming a few times. It works (from my point of view) when both of us are roughly on the same level, and only when there is a problem that clearly needs more than one pair of eyes, because it’s risky or complicated. It’s worked well for some tricky SQL queries, as well as for a complex web page (a mixture of UpdatePanels, Repeaters, and javascript with embedded C# code blocks).\n<\/p>\n

\nIf the other developer is clearly more junior than me, pair programming kind of works as a method for knowledge sharing. I could get the job done noticeably faster on my own, but then we’d need additional time for handing over or explaining what was done, so the two might as well get done together. In those cases pair programming should be considered as a teaching\/learning method rather than as a programming method.\n<\/p>\n

\nBut I do not like to do it for general run-of-the-mill coding – there has to be a specific reason for it. <\/p>\n

\nSaying you should pair program “just because” is an inflexible approach, sort of like saying “hammer works for nearly any purpose”.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I do not need another person to help me focus (which is one of the advantages often mentioned). On the contrary, if someone is looking over my shoulder while I code, it really distracts me. Whereas if I am looking over someone else’s shoulder, I get incredibly frustrated by how inefficiently they work – because almost always they will be inefficient compared to my standards. They don’t know their tools, they don’t use keyboard shortcuts, they type slowly and carelessly. And I sit there and wait and sigh quietly.\n<\/p>\n

\nI imagine I would enjoy pairing with an experienced and efficient programmer, but there aren’t any where I work – there’s no one more experienced than me. This is actually the greatest drawback of this job. I have no one to learn from; I can only learn by doing and by reading, and that’s only going to take me that far. I am a big fish in a small pond, whereas I would much rather be a tadpole in a big pond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I found a blog post about pair programming. The post itself wasn’t anything special (talking about how the names Pair Programming and especially Extreme Programming might scare away conservative managers). But I found the comments interesting, and I could really sympathise with several of the commenters who do not like pair programming. I have tried […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,13],"tags":[194,69,287,156,172],"class_list":["post-733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geeky_things","category-career","tag-agile","tag-learning","tag-pair_programming","tag-programming","tag-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=733"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1467,"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733\/revisions\/1467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}