Ask HN: Have you had mostly good or bad experiences in Pair Programming?

In my experience pair programming is good when it happens organically and bad when it is prescribed. The times I have seen it prescribed have usually been the result organizational or planning issue. "This feature isn't getting done fast enough, you two pair on it." Or, "I don't want to bring anything else into the sprint, you two pair on this story." In those cases it seems like leadership is looking at pair programming as an avenue for gaining some form of efficiency, but most of the time this encumbers things further.

I'd agree with this. I have often sat with coworkers and we have accomplished a lot but all those times it is because we chose to.

Mostly pair programming for about 7 years now. It's not a silver bullet and don't overdo it but it definitely has advantages. I like it but don't love it.

People dislike it when they pair on a story that's trivial or both parties know exactly what needs to be done. I've also found that people haven't taken the time to look at different strategies of pairing.

Not really a bad experience, but it's not for me.

I find it slows down the process considerably. I much prefer to have code reviews and open teammates that I can bounce ideas off of if i get stuck.