I’ve never had a positive experience with mob or pair programming. Every time, it’s felt like a school group project—one or two people doing the heavy lifting while the others coast.
The biggest issue I’ve run into is when the least experienced person in the group won’t listen. I say that as someone who does listen. I’ve been an engineer long enough to know that great ideas can come from newer folks—and I’ve seen it happen plenty of times.
But I’ve also seen newer people completely dismiss experience. Not because they’ve weighed it and disagreed—but because they assume we’re just “stuck in our ways.” Meanwhile, we’re trying to help them avoid well-known pitfalls they haven’t hit yet.
That kind of dynamic doesn’t just slow things down. Everybody down and it's exhausting.
I side with you on this one. My thoughts are more clear when I work alone. Sure, a session here and there is fine, but that value van be gained through a code/design review.
But when it’s time to solve hard problems - I need peace and only my own thoughts.
I am not an engineer, but I do coding for analytics. The solo and paired approaches have tended to work best. The mob approach is fine, as long as I am not the one sharing my screen! It gets nerve wracking for me with all those eyes.
I’ve never had a positive experience with mob or pair programming. Every time, it’s felt like a school group project—one or two people doing the heavy lifting while the others coast.
The biggest issue I’ve run into is when the least experienced person in the group won’t listen. I say that as someone who does listen. I’ve been an engineer long enough to know that great ideas can come from newer folks—and I’ve seen it happen plenty of times.
But I’ve also seen newer people completely dismiss experience. Not because they’ve weighed it and disagreed—but because they assume we’re just “stuck in our ways.” Meanwhile, we’re trying to help them avoid well-known pitfalls they haven’t hit yet.
That kind of dynamic doesn’t just slow things down. Everybody down and it's exhausting.
I side with you on this one. My thoughts are more clear when I work alone. Sure, a session here and there is fine, but that value van be gained through a code/design review.
But when it’s time to solve hard problems - I need peace and only my own thoughts.
Exactly. 💯
I am not an engineer, but I do coding for analytics. The solo and paired approaches have tended to work best. The mob approach is fine, as long as I am not the one sharing my screen! It gets nerve wracking for me with all those eyes.