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My experience of pair programming is the opposite. In a pair I get maybe 4x as much done as when working alone.

Mostly it's because when we hit a point where one person would get stuck, the other usually knows what to do, and we sail through almost anything with little friction.

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Maybe the multiplier is 4x and by the time you have a team of ten you're back down to 2x? My theory is a bit of a hyperbole and I don't know what the multipliers would be? But I know that many times you can move quick when you're small.

And to your point, a single person can easily get stuck, I know that applies to me many times.

There's that but youre missing a lot of variables. E.g. if one of you had perfect sleep and the other didn't the individual with perfect sleep will perform better for longer.

I don't get why people try to simplify - you're removing important details that determine performance and therefore output. This leads to false conclusions.

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