I was dead wrong about pair programming being a waste of time

Thought it was just two people staring at a screen doing nothing productive, but after a senior dev at my office in Austin walked me through a bug fix in 15 minutes that I'd been stuck on for 3 days, I finally get it. Has anyone else had an experience that totally flipped their opinion on a coding practice?

3 comments

3 Comments

viola_ward27d ago

i feel you on this. the whole "two people staring at a screen" thing is such a common take but it misses the point. you're right that it's not just watching someone code. when i first tried it i thought it would slow me down but turns out having someone else catch my silly typos and logic gaps saves way more time than i waste explaining things out loud. that bug you mentioned sounds exactly like the kind of thing a fresh set of eyes catches instantly. pair programming is more about catching mistakes early than looking busy.

stella_lane27d ago

Do you think it works better when the other person is stronger technically or just different from you?

the_wren13d agoTop Commenter

yeah totally! having a fresh set of eyes catches stuff you've been staring at for an hour and just can't see anymore... that's the real magic of it. the technical skill mismatch actually helps sometimes 'cause the stronger person can explain why something broke while the other might spot weirdness the expert glosses over. it's like having someone who reads the map and someone who reads the terrain at the same time.