I’ve been working in programming for a few years and I think I really dislike Pair Programming; I understand how it is but I often find it mind-numbingly dull. I have a feeling I’m doing it wrong but I feel like as a part of a dev team tasks should be broken into discrete enough chunks that a single person can just blitz through the work… Maybe it’s just me, what are y’all thoughts on the matter?
No you’re not weird, pair programming is not one size fits all solution.
EDIT: To be clear, I still find value in pair programming, but a mandatory pair programming, for me is quite absurd. It should be organically happening, for example, a junior asking for help from senior.
I have found it quite effective while pair programming (senior to junior mentorship) to say OUT LOUD exactly what I’m changing and why I’m changing that. This allows others to more easily follow your train of thought and can lead to good discussions rather than turning PRs into essays.
However, as other comments have mentioned, this can get exhausting.