Respect the pomodoro

With Patricia R. Olsen, Jim Remsik writes a good first-person account of pair programming as it is practiced at Hashrocket:

When senior and junior developers are paired, junior programmers might feel intimidated. If this happens, the junior programmer might be asked to start as the driver, which may encourage the senior person to become a better teacher. It’s also a way to bring junior programmers up to speed quickly, because they benefit from the more senior employee’s knowledge.