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Comment by handbanana | Hacker News Reader

I did think they were pair programming oriented, how unfortunate.

Are you tied at the hip to your pair? Can you come into work, take lunch, leave work, vacation, and go to the bathroom on an entirely different schedule to your pair? Essentially, does pairing erode autonomy and freedom to a degree?

The rest doesn't sound that bad, but also nothing spectacular

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Mostly yes, pairing is encouraged. But individual preference is respected. Pairing does tend to be highly collaborative, though I won't put it the way you have. Pairing obviates code reviews. It's not applicable everywhere, but wherever it is, the benefits are very obvious and apparent.

What would spectacular look like?

I'm sorry but you didn't actually answer handbanana's question.

Is your schedule dictated in any way by your pair? If your pair likes to take lunch at 11 and you like to take it at 1 is that a Big Deal in the sense that you'll be less productive than another pair? How much is the typical "one person talking/thinking, one person typing" and how much is just two people programming next to each other?

Let me try again. Schedule is influenced by the pair. There are times when schedules conflict. They are resolved between the pair. There are no rules around it. It's more two people thinking and programming. If necessary the pair separates for some thinking time and reconnect to discuss.

In approximate percentages, how much time do engineers spend working alone vs in pairs (counting only time spent on actual coding)?

Where pairing is done it's mostly 85/15, 85% pairing. It depends a lot on the pair though.

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