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That's strangely the opposite of my experience. I think you have to work at a company that values engineering culture. Also, you could suggest it.

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Pair programming isn't inherent to good engineering culture. I would say that my employers have had phenomenal engineering culture, and the first couple had the best mentorship experiences I could have ever asked for.

Have you practiced it extensively though? You said you haven't professionally, so that leaves just personal experience. I would say it's not entirely critical, but I'd be very skeptical about a company's engineering if they didn't pair program. It would make me look closely at their other practices or lack of

I very much get a cargo-cult vibe from this statement.

In a 30-year career, I’ve pair-programmed under 100 times. Usually to get someone up to speed on a confusing part of the code base.

In fact, I’d go as far as to say that if pair programming is a recurrent need, you need one or more of better engineers, better documentation, or better code reviews.

Thanks for the N=1. In my 5 year career I've pair programmed across the spectrum of experience roughly 500 times.

I don't see it as only as a need to unblock someone. It's a great way learn and share from in a junior:senior dynamic, and also speaking strictly remotely, a nice way to socialize

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