#pair dynamics

[cs-experiences-blog]

I'm someone for whom not driving is often difficult. 

I have heard/read several people talk about being annoyed by pair programming, because the person they're coding with doesn't know how to not drive.  I'm someone for whom not driving is often difficult.  Although this isn't strictly true, I'm one of those people who comes off as having been coding since the age of 4. I'd been coding for years before I came to Carleton, because I find it a lot of fun - an energizing game that I can get lost in for hours.  This means that assignments often take me less time than most people, which means that when it comes to pair assignments, I usually have a quicker sense of how to solve the problems than my partner. This, coupled with my enthusiasm for coding means that it takes a surprising degree of self-control to not be frustrated by the pace of my partner, and "back-seat drive". These factors coupled with a feeling of wasting time can cause me to backseat drive.  I realize this is annoying for the other person and hurts their learning and feelings, so I really do try to avoid this. However, I sometimes mess up, and I'm really sorry for that.  I guess I'd just like to say that there are external forces that cause this particular problem with pair programming, and that some of us really try to do better. This doesn't absolve people like me when we mess up, but it hopefully let's you see that we're not just jerks - it's a little more complicated than that.

[cs-experiences-blog]

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It was hard to find the balance between not just sitting there for two hours but also trying to be a helpful and decent human being.

I mean I definitely had one partner who didn't really know what was going on most of the time and so I was really trying to make sure that I wasn't taking up too much space when we were working together because I was like I don't want to be the mansplaining CS asshole because I don't want to do that, but at the same time she just kept not knowing what was happening and just kind of like staring at me until I would say like, “Maybe we could try doing this,” and so it was hard to find the balance between not just sitting there for two hours but also trying to be a helpful and decent human being.

[cs-experiences-blog]

Also, there’s a difference between like...helping the person who’s driving, and trying to drive from the seat next to them. Like, okay! I know what I’m doing, I can label my variables right!

And it’s CS, so there’s always so much pair programming. Which...one of my partners in Intro, we got along really well, and ended up doing the final project together. And then other partners...like my current group...it's just like people don't follow style guidelines, and no one actually knows what's going on, and then no one's able to meet. But that's not a CS thing, that’s an everyone thing.

There’s also just those partners who...probably should have tested out of [intro] or who would just like take the reins -- and are usually white men. [I had to work with someone like that] one time in intro, and then I like...switched partners as soon as I could. It was so frustrating, because you would say something, and then they would either just...not listen to you, or do something else and then say the same thing you said! And be like, “this is how you do it.” Or you’re arguing about what is essentially the same thing, but a minor minor difference. Also, there’s a difference between like...helping the person who’s driving, and trying to drive from the seat next to them. Like, okay! I know what I’m doing, I can label my variables right.

[cs-experiences-blog]

So, yeah, it just really depends on the people I’m working with, if I feel like I’m just really behind or just struggling as much as anyone else. There’s, uh, very few times where I feel like I’m actually on top of things.

[Have you ever considered not majoring in CS?]

Well, I have two distinct kind of...groups of friends, and one is a group that I feel is more like me. We're just kind of going along, and really don’t know what we’re doing, and we’ll all work on it together, and figure it out. Then, there's the other group that...those people are much more...not introverted, but like work on their own. And therefore I always feel a lot stupider than them, because they have figured it out by themselves, and I'm sure they've done the same thing but alone.

So, yeah, it just really depends on the people I’m working with, if I feel like I’m just really behind or just struggling as much as anyone else. There’s, uh, very few times where I feel like I’m actually on top of things [laughs]. I feel like before this class I'm in -- which has been hard for like a variety of reasons -- I always had some sort of other reason why things were really hard like, “oh, it's comp and comp, and I'm a sophomore.” Yeah, everyone makes that face when I tell them. So, it's usually just like that kind of thing, but… yeah I think this class I’d...I mean I'd already had to declare, and I knew I was going to...but it’s hard for so many reasons. It's probably the structure of this class, and the topic? And it's not just...I mean I would like more specificity, but I think the problem is I don’t know what I don’t know.

And then someone will ask question in class, and I’ll realize I have no idea what the question even means. Or that I've been thinking about it entirely wrong, so like I was doing everything wrong. But yeah, I don’t think I like...seriously considered it. Besides when I was considering other majors, back when I first started CS. But, I’ve definitely considered what I’m going to do with CS differently after this class.

[cs-experiences-blog]

By that point he had forgotten that that was my idea.

I remember one time in Intro I was with this guy who told me he liked brag to me about in high school how he was a really good coder, and he works with Java mainly so Python isn't his main thing but he still knows how to code, and so he was super confident and would always try different things like “oh I think it has to be this way” and I'd be like “well maybe we should switch this around” and he would just be like “no no no no this is how you do it” and then you try five different things and then eventually do the thing that I suggested in the beginning, which would work, and then I was just really frustrated because by that point he had forgotten that that was my idea, which was really annoying.

[cs-experiences-blog]

I know there's a lot of people that don't feel comfortable being honest about how the experience went.

I know there's a lot of people that don't feel comfortable being honest about how the experience went. Because if you have, for example, a man and a woman working together and the man rips the keyboard away from the female identifying person and then the split ends up being like 70/30 because you can't even get the keyboard, then there's sometimes like a fear like, oh if I actually say how much time they spent driving it's gonna look like I didn't do any of the work. And there's also this idea of like you don't necessarily want that person to be approached with it, because then you’re sort of identifying yourself as like oh yeah that was crappy, when you also might have to work in the same major as that person for the next three years, and you might not want that person to know that you didn't appreciate that experience because you don't know if they're going to handle that well or if they're going to be a jerk about it. So I think ummm maybe like a bit of a more broad than a course-by-course accountability tool would be good or just being more open with your students and like if you're having these types of problems feel free to come talk to me about it, and we can proceed the way you want to proceed.

[cs-experiences-blog]

He was the type that just knew a lot of things and like CS has been his hobby since like he was eleven...I think it's on a person-by-person basis, but I didn't feel discouraged around this person.

Yeah and there were like certain things that I caught that weren't working for a code, that the other two didn't catch, and that made me feel good because I still had something to contribute even if I didn't like have as many tools as the other people.

We we're just going to be a pair for this one project, but then this third person came in was like, oh I don't want to work with my other partner anymore can I join your group? And we said yes, and that person was coming from like a totally different background than us, where he was the type that just knew a lot of things and like CS has been his hobby since like he was eleven, and he already knew what github was and had all these tools under his belt. And I think it's on a person-by-person basis, but I didn't feel discouraged around this person. He taught me how to use the debug tool on IntelliJ, which was like so awesome and it made like the project experience for me so much better. Yeah it didn't feel like I couldn't contribute things because I didn't know enough, like I don't know, the other person just made it a good experience, by not being pretentious I guess.

[cs-experiences-blog]

And so in one assignment like five times he would say “Well what do you think” and I would say “Well I don’t know”.

It was just better or worse depending on who the other partner was. I had a partner in my time during the networks class, which was very short lived, and that was a horrible experience because he was, not that it was his fault, but it was a horrible experience because he was quite adept at Python and I hadn’t worked with it for a few terms and we work working with really advanced stuff and he would just type stuff and go “so I just did the xyz what do you think about this other things” and I would have to say “I don’t know”. And so in one assignment like five times he would say, “Well what do you think” and I would say, “Well I don’t know”. I don’t know what you’re doing and I don’t know what’s going on. So after that it was like him doing the assignment which was rough.