[scrapheap]

I know some people really work well when pair programming, but I find that I either slip into Student Mode or Teacher Mode when I try it. Either the other person knows the environment we're working in (architecture, codebase, etc) a lot better than I do, and I'm using the session to gather as much information as I can, or I know the environment better and so I'm explaining why I'm doing things.

If the other person and I are on par with the environment then we're more likely to have a discussion about what we're wanting to achieve and how best to go about it, but then one of us will go away and knock out a first cut for the other person to review.

I do wonder what differs between groups of people who can actually do pair programming and those that (like me) that can't.

[JackMorgan]

I think slipping into student mode or teacher mode is a fantastic reason to pair: it's full time training. You quickly will all rise to the skill level of the best parts of every engineer on the team. Otherwise training is rare and slow.

[pydry]

My mode is either driving and listening to advice or watching and trying to spot things the driver missed.

Occasionally I do side-work if Im not driving - e.g. look something up, message devops, a very small PR etc. so the driver can maintain focus.

I find it to be much more effective that working alone simply because so much stuff that would take me 20 minutes to to go down a rabbit hole ends up being caught by an extra pair of eyes in 4 seconds.

[j4yav]

I always thought that student / teacher mode was the very best form of pair programming.