Ask HN: I'm experiencing pair programming exhaustion, how best to cope with it?
28 comments
There are academic studies of pair programming. If I remember, it does obviously decrease software defects, but almost everyone that wants pair programming ignores the fact that you are now paying twice as much for the same software. The software is not 2x better. Obviously a programmer's salary is so minuscule to the business managers don't even factor this into their thinking. Usually they want pair programming for political reasons, i.e. no single person can ask for a raise due to being the most knowledgeable.
There is no need of studies to see that pair programming is a great way to pass experience from a more to a less experienced software engineer. It might not be the only one way to tutor a junior, not even the best, but works.
Hopefully you don't work in medicine or in any discipline where lives are at stake.
The irony of this comment is that letting people die via A/B guessing is exactly how modern medicine got to where is today.
You give one group a "cure", the other group a placebo. Whichever group survives or does better is the winner.
You give one group a "cure", the other group a placebo. Whichever group survives or does better is the winner.
Fully agree. I would be really interested in seeing such a study.
Place a stack of books so that only you can see the monitor, then feed your partner info as needed when you get stuck.
What is your experience?
The company I work for is completely committed to pair programming, which means everyone does it a 100% of the time. It is fine to help you ramp up when you just joined, but after 4 months of non-stop pairing, it seems like it's just too much.
That’s ridiculous. Pairing 100% would seriously hamper productivity. You need time to withdraw into your mind and think through solutions.
This is why code reviews were invented.
This is why code reviews were invented.
What could make code reviews more effective? Doing them all the time! /s
I've worked at a company that did 100% pairing as well, you'd be surprised at the productivity gains that you experience with it, depending on your work habits.
Not everyone can sit down for 8 hours a day and write code. Some number of people get distracted by Facebook, Hacker News, whatever it might be. Having a baby-sitter of sorts sitting next to you certainly keeps this kind of person on track - and I know, I'm one of them.
Of course this is not every engineer out there. Sure, some people are able to stay focused for 8 hours a day, but I'm certainly not one of them.
Not everyone can sit down for 8 hours a day and write code. Some number of people get distracted by Facebook, Hacker News, whatever it might be. Having a baby-sitter of sorts sitting next to you certainly keeps this kind of person on track - and I know, I'm one of them.
Of course this is not every engineer out there. Sure, some people are able to stay focused for 8 hours a day, but I'm certainly not one of them.
Highly recommended:
https://www.gerritcodereview.com/
https://www.gerritcodereview.com/
Or (tooting my own horn) for a friendlier but still powerful approach to code reviews that integrates better with GitHub you could try https://reviewable.io.
Would this be an alternative and/or replacement to GitHub's code review features?
read through it. that is nice. thank you for sharing that! do believe am going to implement that for my team.
Is it exhaustion that can be handled by a week’s vacation? If yes, that might be a starting point. Otherwise, if the company if completely committed, it’s probably time to look for a new job.
I couldn’t handle four months...
I couldn’t handle four months...
This is such an interesting approach. I’ve read about this at Pivotal, and it’s interesting to see how it’s described on their blog vs Glassdoor. I greatly enjoy working with another engineer to solve an especially tricky problem, but only pair programming seems like it would be exhausting.
What do you like and dislike about it?
What do you like and dislike about it?
I totally agree it is useful for particularly tricky problems. It is not a coincidence that what I like the most about it is the initial discussion on the potential approaches to solving the problem. But then when we move into the implementation phase, that is when things get tiresome after four months of continuous and permanent pairing, because in my case, I appreciate silence and time to focus and think at my own pace. Maybe permanent pairing is just not an useful thing honestly. I guess I'm wondering if anyone has successfully done it for months at a time.
That definitely makes a lot of sense, and I also value the balance between hashing out an approach together and the silence and focus that thinking at my own pace allows. I've never worked at a job with permanent pairing and don't plan to, but I'm always interested to hear what it's like on the ground. Thanks for sharing!
It's not clear which aspect of the pairing makes it tiresome for you.
Do you feel that you are the 'typer', or that you feel pushed, or being corrected too often?
Maybe for a change you may reverse the roles, or swing the pairing partner. Besides, it's not like the process is set in stone, each pair's dynamic could be different. Some pairs don't match well or wear out.
Bring it up, after all it's not a policy for its own sake.
Do you feel that you are the 'typer', or that you feel pushed, or being corrected too often?
Maybe for a change you may reverse the roles, or swing the pairing partner. Besides, it's not like the process is set in stone, each pair's dynamic could be different. Some pairs don't match well or wear out.
Bring it up, after all it's not a policy for its own sake.
I dislike someone sitting next to me telling me what they think I should type for 6-8 hours a day.
I noticed you mentioned before that you are currently a company founder; was your full pair-programming experience at a previous job? Was that what it was like, and were you forced to work with an individual in which that was the dynamic?
My guess would be that full pair-programming wouldn't be uni-directional (you type, I tell you what to type, all day, every day), but I could definitely see that being the worst-case scenario.
My guess would be that full pair-programming wouldn't be uni-directional (you type, I tell you what to type, all day, every day), but I could definitely see that being the worst-case scenario.
Yes at a previous job and all of us were in one location so it was more common to sit in the same cubicle, the one person typer probably arose from that. I was not forced to do it, I imagine if I would have complained accommodations would have been made but I'm fully capable of working like that so I stuck it out. There were days where I was not the primary person typing and I would always try to steer the work towards larger sets of changes that could be completed by one person in a predictable amount of time, once found I would suggest they work on that while I step away and work on something else. It might be that the programming I have been involved with is so banal that I have not encountered a problem that could not be described in advance well enough to allow all engineers to work on a separate piece of the application. I also found that pairing sometimes led to excessive non work related conversation.
I would say your last statement is correct, each team needs to find working dynamics that make all members successful. I finished the project on that team and accepted a contract position in another city for a larger client.
We have a new project though, a graph backed transaction management platform, that will require more collaboration than our usual crud app but we will still not have a policy that involves "sit down and write the code together."
I would say your last statement is correct, each team needs to find working dynamics that make all members successful. I finished the project on that team and accepted a contract position in another city for a larger client.
We have a new project though, a graph backed transaction management platform, that will require more collaboration than our usual crud app but we will still not have a policy that involves "sit down and write the code together."
Sounds awful !! Make sure to get lots of exercise / lift weights / gym etc to combat the stress . The strength training will make you stronger and give you energy to apply for another job on the side.
Stop pairing.
Threesome
We just latch onto hysteria.