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by jacques_chester 2807 days ago
> You can have a junior dev, and hand hold, but it also requires effort on the part of the junior dev / a desire to learn and grow. Without that, the exercise is futile.

If someone's not interested in learning or growing, I don't see how pairing or not pairing makes a difference.
2 comments
watwut 2807 days ago
It is completely driven by senior developer. Many students find such pedagogy demotivating. They are not getting tasks they could solve autonomously and independently, every their step is watched as they are doing it. So, they don't even have chance to make mistake, realize mistake by themselves and then fix it. Imagine college classes done that way - everyone would rightfully complain.

Motivation and desire to learn are partly function of personality and partly function of environment.

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jacques_chester 2805 days ago
> Imagine college classes done that way - everyone would rightfully complain.

The tutorial method is thousands of years old, actually. I suspect that if one-on-one education was economically feasible it would be the model chosen almost every time.

Having paired with people who don't know what "if" and "for" mean in a software context clear through to individuals who've been in software for longer than I've been alive, I can only say that it works more often than not.

I often hear that pairing would be terrible at this, pairing must be dreadful for that, pairing wouldn't work for the other thing. What these have in common is that they are rejections based on mental simulation of events.

But ... I've actually paired. For years. It doesn't work for everyone but it still works for most people, so long as they learn it from an experienced pair.

It is frustrating to see a thing work, over and over, then be told you must be wrong, it can't possibly work.

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loco5niner 2806 days ago
> It is completely driven by senior developer.

It's also driven by the company. Sometimes companies make decisions that really impact employee loyalty.

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JoeAltmaier 2807 days ago
Its a colossal waste of the experienced person's time
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cardine 2807 days ago
You learn someone isn't interested in learning or growing much quicker, which itself is very important information.
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jacques_chester 2807 days ago
Having been on the other side of this, yes, it really can be.

On the other hand, in a review-driven situation, you're back where you started, multiplied by a slow feedback cycle and competing stimuli.

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