Pair programming is not a silver bullet. It's a tool that's appropriate sometimes and not others. Rigid adherence to pair programming as a practice lacks appreciable agility...if you get my drift. If the act of pair programming produces worse results, then not being able to pair program is not limiting their potential. Trying to pair program is.
I worry that framing the relationship from the outset in terms of "I've got" suggests a particular mindset in regard to the distribution of power. Ideally leaders work for their team rather than owning it. The developer isn't the necessarily the place to "start fixing things."
Thanks for the feedback. We actually don't do a great deal of pair-programming, but it made for a short title that got the point across. I agree that positioning it as the problem was a poor choice of words on my part.
I do disagree about the framing of my colleague, however. If I were to say that I have a friend that knows a lot about geography, I don't think that it would be implied that I see myself as the more powerful individual. My entire reason for posting was to better understand how I can take my own time and apply it to helping someone else grow. Without much more context, though, I can understand how it may have come off differently.
Comments
Pair programming is not a silver bullet. It's a tool that's appropriate sometimes and not others. Rigid adherence to pair programming as a practice lacks appreciable agility...if you get my drift. If the act of pair programming produces worse results, then not being able to pair program is not limiting their potential. Trying to pair program is.
I worry that framing the relationship from the outset in terms of "I've got" suggests a particular mindset in regard to the distribution of power. Ideally leaders work for their team rather than owning it. The developer isn't the necessarily the place to "start fixing things."
Good luck.
Thanks for the feedback. We actually don't do a great deal of pair-programming, but it made for a short title that got the point across. I agree that positioning it as the problem was a poor choice of words on my part.
I do disagree about the framing of my colleague, however. If I were to say that I have a friend that knows a lot about geography, I don't think that it would be implied that I see myself as the more powerful individual. My entire reason for posting was to better understand how I can take my own time and apply it to helping someone else grow. Without much more context, though, I can understand how it may have come off differently.