Why Pair Programming Is Good: Because You Are A Great Programmer

For as long as I have worked as a programmer I have been frustrated by the level of transparency in the job. It is quite difficult to determine if a programmer is good or not. It is even more difficult to make this determination from the outside (eg. management), leading to heavy reliance on stereotypes and a given programmer's level of cockiness to determine who is good and who is not.

Pair programming is the first reasonable solution to this problem I have even seen. If you pair program with someone you can quickly tell whether or not the person is a skilled programmer or not. Obviously it is hard to objectively say whether or not a programmer is good no matter what, but at least pair programming provides visibility into the problem.