This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Ruby Buzz by Obie Fernandez. Original Post: Of Course Steve Yegge Hates Pair Programming Feed Title: Obie On Rails (Has It Been 9 Years Already?) Feed URL: http://jroller.com/obie/feed/entries/rss Feed Description: Obie Fernandez talks about life as a technologist, mostly as ramblings about software development and consulting. Nowadays it's pretty much all about Ruby and Ruby on Rails. Latest Ruby Buzz Posts Latest Ruby Buzz Posts by Obie Fernandez Latest Posts From Obie On Rails (Has It Been 9 Years Already?)

I find Steve Yegge's blog rantings incredibly entertaining. In his latest rambling masterpiece, he makes Google sound like paradise while totally dissing capital-A agilists and pair programming. Did anyone have the same thought as me?

Hey Steve, if you had to pair-program all day, there's no way you'd ever have time to write such long blog rantings! You'd be too busy, you know, actually working.

Most developers that I've met (except at TW) hate pair programming and I chalk it up to human nature. Truth is, pair programming is one of the only effective ways that a lot of us have ever witnessed keeping average developers from pissing away 95% of their productivity engaging in non-work such as reading and writing blogs, instant messaging, personal email, shopping online and otherwise wasting time on bullshit. When you're pairing, you simply HAVE to work all day. Yes, it's exhausting, but incredibly effective. As my friend and former boss just mentioned to me a sec ago...

[We] had meeting after meeting about pair programmer at [my former employer], and the only real issue they could raise about it, what it was too tiring to be "on" for 8+ hours a day...

Yes, pair programming is exhausting. Maybe cause, you actually have to work, you know what I mean? As far as I'm concerned, all the other benefits you get from pairing like continuous review and knowledge-sharing are just gravy.