[Wikitech-l] want to pair program more often?

You should probably pair program more often. Here's why. 1) learning Every single time I've pair programmed with someone, one of us has learned stuff. About our tools, about a new way to look at a problem, about a language feature, or something. Sometimes I've paired explicitly as a teaching or learning technique, sometimes on more equal footing ("I'm the domain expert for the problem but you're better at $framework than I am"), or just to brainstorm or troubleshoot. At least one of us always comes out smarter. 2) the tools are better than ever https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/teampractices/2014-July/thread.html has some resources; don't dismiss pair programming just because you don't live near other programmers. 3) pairing makes better code "Pair Programming" by Laurie Williams (Ch. 17 in _Making Software: What Really Works, and Why We Believe It_, ed. Andy Oram & Greg Wilson, O'Reilly 2011) reviews recent studies and finds that pair programming leads to higher-quality code, and "reduced product risk due to improved knowledge management". Some teams even tried pair programming as a replacement for code review. 4) it's more egalitarian As this list of status play behaviors points out https://web.archive.org/web/20070216200742/http://greenlightwiki.com/improv… , judging someone else's work -- even favorably! -- is a move that raises your status and lowers theirs. This is one reason I have encouraged EVERYONE who writes MediaWiki code to try their hand at code review, so everyone can take turns -- everyone can be a teacher and critic.[0] If you have found that code review feels adversarial or hierarchical, try switching it up by asking to pair with a more experienced programmer, getting your code review while you work together. People who want to pair program more often on Wikimedia-related code: want to use this thread to raise your hand? If people like the idea, we could start doing something like http://www.pairprogramwith.me/ or http://pear.growstuff.org/ to connect people up. Sumana Harihareswara Senior Technical Writer Wikimedia Foundation ​[0] By the way, this great blog post http://www.wordyard.com/2014/08/10/doing-is-knowing-sweet-jane-and-the-web/ makes a very strong point about how trying out an activity - like writing, music, or coding​ - gives you more expertise, empathy, and ability to define yourself, and to judge the work of other people who do that activity. I would argue this applies to code review as well.