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If Your Company Doesn’t Do Pair Programming, Leave

GreekDataGuy
Better Programming
Published in
4 min readMay 31, 2021

Pair programming
Photo by Christina Morillo on Pexels.

My first remote coding gig only did pair programming.

That meant that a senior developer watched every keystroke I made, mistyped… and deleted.

I hated it. It was both embarrassing and exhausting. Even the $40/hour it paid to someone with less than one year of experience didn’t seem worth it.

It wasn’t until later that I realized how valuable the experience had been.

Pairing Is the Fastest Way To Level Up

Nothing improves your skills faster than pairing with someone senior. Nothing reinforces your skills better than pairing with someone junior.

No two programmers use the exact same tools or think the same way. Pairing gives you a window into the mind of someone else solving problems. You then get to “steal” what works for them and add it to your own workflow.

If you’re new to an app, language, or framework, someone telling you which files to open sure beats guessing.

At the same time, writing code under “pressure” (i.e. while someone watches you) reinforces what you know. Having recalled methods and design patterns in front of someone else, you’ll more…

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GreekDataGuy
GreekDataGuy

Written by GreekDataGuy

Just a developer. Contact: greek.data.guy “at” gmail.com

Write a response

I would quit any company that forced me to pair program every single line of code. What a nightmare that would be

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You can’t scroll Twitter or daydream when you feel tired. Someone else is watching your screen.

This sounds like my worst nightmare. Making a developer grind out code like they are part of a fast moving, never pausing assembly line does not seem like a great way to solve even the simplest problems.

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I don't think it's good to promote ppl to expect to have such babysitting measure as a must.
Companies expected to have a worker that can produce, not a student to be taught. If you expected an apprentice life, Low pay rate is wt you get as a…

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