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A comment on Is Pair Programming Worth It? AirPair Interviews Pivotal Labs. Parent comment

Re:Is Pair Programming Worth It? AirPair Interviews Pivotal ... by msoad on Wednesday December 18, 2013 @01:33PM (#6929504)
The problem is programmers goof off about 4-5 hours a day but when they assign to pair program the whole day they can't do that. There is no pair goof-offing.

That's why most programmers don't like long period of pair programming. Because you can't program all day. That's all

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Re:Is Pair Programming Worth It? AirPair Interviews Pivotal ... by bitcrusher on Wednesday December 18, 2013 @02:28PM (#6929953)
Spoken like someone who either isn't a programmer ( a PM, maybe? ) or is projecting. Programmers don't 'goof off' more than any other group of people.

Programming is generally a solitary activity, largely due to the immense amount of concentration it takes to build a mental model of a system that you're working on. Tracking variables, context, structure, side-effects, out-come scenarios, etc. takes a lot of brain-power. 'Pairing with someone' for long periods of time adds another dimension to that... Communication and synchrony with another person.

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