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Discussion on: Onboarding a junior developer to your team? Here's 12 tips.

 
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René Baron • Edited

Dear Carolyn,
When you "think" about stuff, that you have never seen, does not make you a professional :-)
It's just wild guessing and is one of the problems that is holding startups back from scaling and growing fast.

All this has nothing to do with IT but with human nature. I am not saying that pair programming is bad. But it is not enough. When you just have pair programming without a programme around it that makes sure, the the right and always different pairs are built, different characters are addressed their way to learn best, trainers are trained and rewarded, folks are fired who never learn, remain dependent on others, never pay back or contribute etc. - you know - all the general HR stuff - you will get efficiency and motivational problems only Microsofts and Googles can afford - but will take lifes when you are an airplane or car manufacturer, responsible for a nuclear power plant etc. ;-)

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v6 profile image
🦄N B🛡 • Edited

Seems like you speak from bitter experience, here.

When you just have pair programming without a programme around it that makes sure, the the right and always different pairs are built, different characters are addressed their way to learn best, trainers are trained and rewarded, folks are fired who never learn, remain dependent on others, never pay back or contribute etc. - you know - all the general HR stuff - you will get efficiency and motivational problems only Microsofts and Googles can afford - but will take lifes when you are an airplane or car manufacturer, responsible for a nuclear power plant etc.

And there's more to the merits of coders learning to pair program than wild guesses. I don't think anybody's saying it's something everyone should do, but it there may be some benefit to learn it in case it's useful in the future, with the right company, colleagues, or program. Tools in the toolbox, and all that.

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Mike Bybee

I have always hated pair programming, as a junior and as a senior dev. It has never not made me feel uncomfortable personally, on either side of it. It's not quite as bad virtually, but still far from great.