What are your thoughts on paired programming? Do you have any stories to share, good or bad?
Personally, I love the idea and have had great success with it. Although, at times I find myself in a stalemate of thoughts - overexplaining to one-another, often coming to the same conclusion, in different words, without realizing it for some time.
I think the best approach is to have a 'driver' who just types while the 'navigator' dictates. This means that the navigator is the one doing all the thinking, while the driver 'takes a break' by not having to think.
Then, at regular intervals, the driver and navigator switch roles. Of course, there is some room for interjection - the driver can catch errors in the navigator's logic, and the navigator can catch syntax/semantic errors in the driver's typing.
I've had a decent amount of experience with pair programming and never found it *super* helpful, though it was fine. (I've done it both with a strict driver/navigator separation and with a looser setup). My overall impression is pretty negative, but I'd be open to trying it again.
(I'd especially like to try it as a way to get up to speed with an unfamiliar codebase.)
nebunez 
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