[jatins]

Google's Jeff and Sanjay are famous for pairing together, and most would think they are fairly competent people.

Pairing brings a new perspective to the problem and, for me, the social element is also valuable in that you also build relationships by pairing.

Though it's completely possible what you and I think when we say "pairing" might be different. For example, the ability to not check Twitter feed would only be an issue if you are pairing for hours at stretch. While my pairing sessions are rarely longer than an hour.

[brandall10]

Some companies do a strict all-day XP style pairing session, where a paired team works on a synced schedule (clock-in/clock-out/meetings/lunch). Pivotal Labs in particular follows this model.

[soneca]

If they are pairing to do high level design, then you are not disagreeing with GP

[coryrc]

I was just looking at their changes recently, plenty of regular improvements to code.