Good point, pair programming, XP, agile, and all other such nonsense should be added to the rules.

Nothing is more unfashionable than last year's big fashion.

Or maybe people were willing to give something a chance, and found that though it has benefits, it's not everything it's cracked up to be? I am a solitary person so I found the entire idea of pair programming repugnant but some people really love it. I don't think it has anything to do with fashion more to do with what some would consider a failed experiment. Did coding this way yield quality code at a faster rate with less stress? Anecdotally I would say no, and that may be why it's called nonsense by some.