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Oh no, permanent pair programming is insanity, it's just really effective for onboarding.

I assume assembly line workers also pair work while the new worker is getting up to speed.

At any rate, the more you're working in a large team, the less your programming should be "an intensely personal task". We have style guides for a reason...

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+1 for doing this for onboarding / knowledge sharing or just brainstorming possible solutions to a problem. But do it with a clear timebox (maybe 1-2h) and breaks in between. Having to do this longer (like a whole day, even with breaks etc) would drive me nuts as well. Sometimes I just need to stare at the code for a while or draw pretty boxes with arrows on a piece of paper (kind of hard to share in a remote setting).

Yeah definitely.

I said "intensely internal", not "intensely personal". If you think the only thing that programmers do is typing out code without any thought, you have very badly misunderstood the profession.

Sorry, I misread you. Yeah it's strongly a matter of time and place, but in the right time and place, pairing can be excellent.

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