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Some people thrive in that kind of environment (XP and all that), I know it sucked the soul out of me the one time it was forced on my team at a prior employer.

Interesting, I guess it depends on the person and on the thing you're learning like someone else mentioned. I do think you need some time by yourself to really go deep at your own speed to learn something.

Pairing and mobbing are not fads, they've been around for a while and in my experience they've been very useful, I'd recommend you try it with someone with experience with it.

I generally do not work well if there's someone staring at me as I work. I also have my own, high-productivity, quirky ways of using computers that mostly only work for me in solitude.