Pair programming has worked for me in very, very few situations.
The short story is that pair programming doesn’t work for me as the main way of developing software. I can pair program for a day, or maybe a week, especially if we’re focused on a particular problem. But after that? I’m done. Toast. I don’t want to see anyone, talk to anyone, and I need at least a couple of days in a cave until I’m fit for human company again.
It’s a sad story, but the funny thing is that I’m so much happier now with how it ended. I’m happily employed on a contract where I work from home or from a coffee shop, and I’ve made new friends and explored more of San Francisco than I ever thought possible. I have a bicycle and a laptop, and as long as I meet my deadlines and check in code regularly, my time is my own.
I’ll list the big problems I have with pair programming up front and give you the detail and anecdotes later.
- Split focus.
- No experimentation.
- No high notes.
- No pride in ownership.
- No escape...
...I asked my co-workers if they saw what I saw, if I was missing something, anything -- I didn’t see how this could work, how people could keep doing this. They said I was doing fine, that it just took time to settle in and adjust. That it was hard for everyone at first.
Eventually, I retreated into myself. Between the blinding headaches, the insomnia, and the pounding, unmet need to write code, I stopped responding to input. I could stare at a screen and not see anything. Someone could talk to me unexpectedly and I wouldn’t hear them. I was fulfilling the rote requirements of my job, but I wasn’t there. I’d used up everything I had just showing up for the day. I started checking my iPhone when my other partner was typing.
Finally -- just shy of three months later, and for the first time ever -- I was fired for not being a team fit when pair programming.
###Not Alone
I wrote this not just to understand it, but also to be able to talk about it. There’s been a presumption that pair programming works for most people and is much easier and faster than programming solo would be. This may or may not be the case, but as a long term practice, pair programming doesn’t work for me. There are many other people that pair programming doesn’t work for either. We matter too...
