I really dislike pair programming intensely. The physical setup makes me nervous. What I dislike even more is ‘mob programming’ aka swarming. I find the typical experience just ‘instructed chaos’.
But this post isn’t clickbait or a bad attempt to create polarisation. I support the idea of pair programming and swarming, and I even agree with claims as to their effectiveness. I believe these practices are valid and I don’t wish to take that away from anyone.
But equally, pair programming and swarming are just not for me.
Several heated debates recently have helped me understand that it’s okay to have a strong preference and stick by it. The same goes for other people. Theirs and mine don’t need to be the same. I enjoy solo coding but within a team that interacts around the act of coding, be that Slack, standups, PR code reviews, or water cooler moments.
Some teams would not take me because my understanding of ‘collaboration’ is not their thing, and that’s fine. I’m certainly not here to argue against anyone else’s experience of pair programming, the opposite in fact. With an open mind, perhaps all I’m waiting for is some good mentoring one day.
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