Can we stop pretending paired programming is amazing and not introvert hell?

I will give paired programming one thing, it’s good for new hires and new graduates. But after that it’s mostly downsides. I have been working as a pair programmer for 7 months and I hate it.

If you want to reduce knowledge silos, maybe paired programming can be beneficial as a once or twice a week thing with experienced engineers.

10-4 we pair every day of the week and have to work together on user stories regardless of the complexity. It’s a waste of company resources to put 2 engineers on the same feature. Programming isn’t a continuous flow that allows you to constantly think out loud for your pair. Programming is quiet reflection and trying things you googled and understanding why it worked after the fact sometimes.

I have noticed one common trend is that when we are stuck on a problem and it’s near lunch or the end of the day one of us comes back with a solution, why? Because when we arent paired we could read some documentation or just google and try random solutions we dont think will work but do, or just thought quietly about the problem and the solution was clear.

You know your coworkers solution isn’t good and you’ve tried to tell them it is, they’re stubborn and have more experience so you submit the code for review and gets rejected for the points you just made. Now you both look like bad engineers.

It’s a cliche but I’m going to use it, 9 women cant make a baby in 1 month. Just because you pair or mob doesnt mean you finish that story quicker.

I have had 3 coworkers leave the company and all 3 have admitted they’re glad that they wont have to pair program at their new company. I have asked coworkers what they thought about it and have always had the same “dont like it but I dont want to be labeled as a bad team player”, we have one of those “it’s a great practice and we should do it all the time” engineers he has 1 year of experience and thought it was a good idea to rotate pairs more often every 3 days and switch control every 7 minutes, some of the team voiced concerns over this but management said they wanted it so now were stuck doing it.

Programming shouldn’t be interrupted in 7 minute intervals it’s a zone you get into where you’re slowly implementing on your solution.

The main reason I hate it, I am an introvert its extremely taxing on me to be constantly talking to someone for 6 hours at the end of the day I dont want to see my family I just want to watch youtube in silence for a few hours to recharge. I feel like engineers are mostly introverted and this is forcing a good number of them into their own personal hell.

Please pay attention to agile practices and dont assume just because its agile it’s good, agile is ok but it shouldnt be the best thing ever because of how bad waterfall is, we can do better speak up to management.