Yes, because they do 100% pair programming. When you rely on someone else being there at the same time as you, you need predictable hours. It's possible they don't need to be as fixed as they are, but that's how they've chosen to do it.

> 100% pair programming

I don't think there's a faster way to send me running away screaming. I'd actually take "100% Visual Basic" over "100% Pair Programming" if I had to choose one at gunpoint.

I think most people self-select out of applying for this reason, usually because of a bad experience.

I was skeptical. Now I greatly prefer it. It would take a ludicrous raise to shift me to a company that doesn't do it as a regular practice.

Basically they hire 2 people to do 1 person's work. I guess its a nice employment policy. But I would never work there.

> Basically they hire 2 people to do 1 person's work.

Pivotal is a for-profit company. We pair program because we think it's more effective for most engineering activities (not all: most) than soloing.

I'm vastly more productive in a pair. I don't take 3 hour "5 minute" Facebook breaks. If I get stuck, my pair usually has an idea, so rather than spending a day fighting I spend minutes. Usually the discussion with a pair comes to a better design, sooner, than nutting it out by myself. Working with a pair makes me accountable -- I am far less tempted to take shortcuts with tests, code, readability, design or other important properties.

Many folk will say well gosh, they don't need a pair for these things. I envy you, brave superhuman. I have ADHD and the crippling disability of being merely mortal, so pairing is awesome for me.

I'm genuinely wondering: is pair programming better, compared to doing the design in pair, going to work on your own, then reviewing each other's code?

As an introvert I don't think I could handle the "pair all day" approach.

> is pair programming better, compared to doing the design in pair, going to work on your own, then reviewing each other's code?

The literature is, I believe, pretty thin and equivocal. However the suspicion is that pair programming is pretty much the core loop of bouncing back and forth, reduced to the smallest possible size.

It also avoids some of the antipatterns I've seen with code reviews -- widely distributed patches, reviews getting stale because they were too hard for a Monday, then a Tuesday... then a Friday ...

> As an introvert I don't think I could handle the "pair all day" approach.

You can take a break if you need one. Lunchtime is fixed at an hour. I typically go and spend it alone with a book.

There is sometimes a confusion between intro/extraversion and sociability. I'm quite sociable, I genuinely like talking to people, but it drains me because I lean towards introverted. So the lunchtime recharge is very helpful.

Each pair finds their own balance.

I guess it keeps you honest.... e.g focused and ontrak

That's not how pair programming works.

At some point you're going to need more than one person to understand the code and they either go through that learning process months down the road or right now when they can be most useful in shaping that code.

It's not simple mathematics.