Re: Practice: Pair Programming

"C. Keith Ray" <keith.ray-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> --- In xpbookdiscussiongroup-hHKSG33TihhbjbujkaE4pw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, 
> "csteinbach2003" 
> <chris.steinbach@xxxx> wrote:
> 
>>Ideas that
>>are not well formed or difficult to articulate are too easily
>>dismissed during a dialog
> 
> With practice, a dialog can actually help articulate ideas that are not well 
> formed. It's a 
> practice of collaboration rather than competition... starting with not 
> dismissing what your 
> pair partner says.

I really like the distinction between collaboration and competition. In 
my experience, that distinction captures the essence of a successful 
pairing more than all the buzzwords about "teamwork" and "team building."

I'm often reminded of _Drew Carey's Green Screen Show_ or its progeny 
_Whose Line is it Anyway?_ These are improv shows; given a topic, the 
comics must act out a bit on the fly, making it up as they go along. I 
sometimes identify with the actors. The bit's going along, and suddenly 
one of the actors says something that completely changes the direction. 
For example:

   A. As soon as we get across the river, the treasure is ours!

   B. What shall we do?

   A. Let's use this boat!

   (The get in the boat and begin rowing across the river.)

   B. Oh no! We're sinking!

At this point, I wonder what A is going to do now that his boat has been 
sunk. The first thing he always does is to try desperately not to laugh. 
Fortuntely, neither I nor the studio audience need to hold back. Then he 
might do something like:

   A. Good thing we wore our bathing suits!

   (They shed their outer clothes, but B forgot his bathing suit.)

   B. Oops! I think I forgot to wear my bathing suit!

In the middle of a bit, your teammate may throw you a curve, put a new 
spin on where you thought the bit was going. But you can't fight it. You 
have to go with it, allow your teammate to contribute, and to contribute 
yourself. Improv only works in a collaborative relationship, not a 
competitive one.


It's also like being in a jazz or rock band. Usually, the notes are not 
written out ahead of time. Each musician at most has a fake sheet or 
lead sheet, with lyrics (if any) and the chords that the band should be 
playing at each point in the song. But within this very loose structure, 
there's a lot of variation. Each musician brings his own personality to 
the mix, making up what notes to play as he goes along. Often, the 
musicians will take turns playing solos as the others back them up.

In any case, when you're playing in a jazz band, you have to pay 
attention to what all the other musicians are playing and to complement 
their work. You can't fight them, and you can't ignore them, or else the 
song won't work. You must take turns doing solos. And even when you're 
soloing, you have to listen to the other musicians, so that your solo 
can complement their accompaniment as much as their work accompanies yours.


Ron Jeffries <ronjeffries-iH4XQsbo15BDlFalPvvQyA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I suspect that a jazz band is often in communal flow. I suspect that pairs
> attain a flow state as well.

There is certainly a state similar to flow when you're playing music. 
It's often called "tightness" or "groove." (Being a musician as well as 
a software engineer, I feel qualified to comment on this.) There's a 
point at which you forget that you're playing an instrument or singing, 
and you just let the music come out, together. It's an awesome 
experience, something that a single musician, no matter how talented, 
could ever reach by himself.

It also takes practice for a band to be able to reach this state 
together. There's a certain drummer I play with--I've been playing bass 
with him for many years. It's relatively easy, during a given practice 
session, for us to synch up and reach a state where we're in a tight 
groove, even as we go from song to song. Another drummer with whom I've 
not had as much practice, we find it more difficult to groove together, 
but it's getting easier.

I've experienced something similar in paired development. (Though I'm 
not an expert, as are others on this list.) It takes practice to be able 
to reach flow in a pair. But it seems to me that once we do, the 
intensity of this flow is greater than either of us could experience on 
his own.

-TimK


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