Speaking of skill level, it occurred to me last year to offer to be "roving guru" (sounds haughty) or "roving consultant" or simply "Rover" (woof!) when we have an odd number of developers. This works out nicely for me anyway, and the others are fine with it. I have no idea what this does to our velocity because we are, unfortunately, very disorganized and don't keep track. (I shan't bother to explicate.) I do enjoy teaching and mentoring people, as long as that's the real plan. And the roving helps me tolerate the noise level in an open workspace. Maybe because I have to pay attention to all the vocal noise. I have to keep alert to the sound of people calling for assistance or sounding lost and confused.
OMG, I just got an insight. I'm an effective Rover or mentoring "navigator" as long as no one expects me to read. I need to not look at the monitor, not try to read the code or docs or whatever. As long as all I do in the presence of talking people is do my own listening and talking, my brain doesn't turn to complete mush. I noticed long ago that I have almost zero reading comprehension when I read English (native language) aloud. I also remember covering my ears while reading silently when someone else reads or the teacher is talking. Etc. So the big insight is, my reading incomprehension in the presence of speech extends to reading computer code! I have a reading problem (or attention problem, or whatever it boils down to) which frustrates my ability to pair.
That explains why I have such a hard time understanding even a single line of code in most pairing sessions. That explains why, when I'm the "extra set of eyes," all I'm good for is syntax and spelling check (which really should be done by software, not me). Writing code happens to be a lot more of reading what's on the monitor than head's down typing. So, the question is, how am I able to drive okay with insightful and not-so-obtrusive Apoorva? Well, it often doesn't work. But I notice it does work when there's only one other pair in the room and I haul Apoorva and me to the far end. That cuts the other voices down significantly.
Thank you, thank you for prompting me to think this through.
OMG, I just got an insight. I'm an effective Rover or mentoring "navigator" as long as no one expects me to read. I need to not look at the monitor, not try to read the code or docs or whatever. As long as all I do in the presence of talking people is do my own listening and talking, my brain doesn't turn to complete mush. I noticed long ago that I have almost zero reading comprehension when I read English (native language) aloud. I also remember covering my ears while reading silently when someone else reads or the teacher is talking. Etc. So the big insight is, my reading incomprehension in the presence of speech extends to reading computer code! I have a reading problem (or attention problem, or whatever it boils down to) which frustrates my ability to pair.
That explains why I have such a hard time understanding even a single line of code in most pairing sessions. That explains why, when I'm the "extra set of eyes," all I'm good for is syntax and spelling check (which really should be done by software, not me). Writing code happens to be a lot more of reading what's on the monitor than head's down typing. So, the question is, how am I able to drive okay with insightful and not-so-obtrusive Apoorva? Well, it often doesn't work. But I notice it does work when there's only one other pair in the room and I haul Apoorva and me to the far end. That cuts the other voices down significantly.
Thank you, thank you for prompting me to think this through.