[michaelrpeskin]

I think that PP is generally talked about backwards. Everyone says that the least experienced programmer should drive while the senior programmer talks. When I was an intern 25+ years ago before pair programming had a name, I sat beside the grey beard who did the typing. I watched him and tried to keep up. For the first couple of weeks, I contributed nothing, but once I started to understand the code and his style, I was able to start seeing simple things, like reminding him to do a null pointer check, and then I started to see more and more stuff and I was able to contribute in real time.

I think this worked because 1) he was comfortable with me staring over his shoulder with neither of us talking and 2) I was comfortable with just watching an learning. I've tried this style with my junior programmers, and I'm too anxious being quiet and coding while someone watches me, and most juniors are also too anxious to prove that they're paying attention so they have to talk, and that breaks the flow.