[heleph]

Pair programming is supposed to be two people thinking through the problem together. It works when both people are immersed in solving the problem together.

When it works well, having two brains working together brings the benefit of different perspective and experience. It gives the opportunity to riff off each other's ideas. You spot issues with design and implementation earlier because having to communicate your ideas means working harder on them before you try to turn them into code.

I find it fun to work with someone else who is smart and engaged. It's magic when you become warmed up enough that things really start to flow. I've actually managed to get into flow before while working with someone else.

That said, it's pretty difficult to get right. I found it quite hard to let someone else see my process. If both sides aren't engaged in problem solving it can be really boring. I've also found that it takes me a while to figure out how to work productively with new people. The dynamic between any particular pair of people is a bit different. I think you need to build trust with your pair.

[henrik_w]

A "simpler" version is discussing the problem with your colleague in front of a whiteboard (drawing almost always seems to help). Once you've worked out how to implement it, you go off and implement it yourself.