[karmakaze]

Pairing doesn't have to be all or nothing. For tasks that clearly work better individually such as initial deep thought into an area, do that. For other tasks, getting in the habit of pairing has many secondary benefits that are only appreciated after doing it a lot for a while. Even after appreciating these benefits, it's far too easy in this age of remote work to ignore pairing, so it takes intentional action to maintain unless your team has already developed automatic pairing patterns.

I especially like pairing with less senior devs that actually ask every question they think of. When I hear it, I try to pause and think what's this actually about and give as deep an answer as I can. Often this leads to discoveries that can simplify understanding, design and/or implementation. You get out of it what you put into it.