The best part of pair-programming is when things go wrong

When I think back, my favorite pair-programming sessions were the one where things went wrong. These were the moments that taught me what being a programmer is all about. What do you do when you don’t know what to do? How do you break down a new problem? What tools do you reach for? When do you abandon your current approach? These are things you can’t learn from a blog post.

Even just the idea that senior devs have knowledge gaps, google things, and make mistakes was a revelation to me. I started to see that senior devs are a lot like junior devs, but with more confidence, better instincts, and a well-rounded perspective. These were valuable lessons for me as I transitioned into a senior dev myself.