Talking Pairing with Shopify’s VP Eng

In this video, I interview Farhan Thawar, VP of Engineering and fervent pair programmer at Shopify.

This discussion goes deep into pairing. Even intermediate and advanced folks are likely to get quite a bit from it.

Topics include

• His experience managing 125 pairs of developers.
• Things you learn from pairing that aren’t just about code.
• How he defines pair programming.
• Why the more junior developer in a pair should usually drive.
• Pairing’s marketing problem.
• How pairing is like the underhanded free-throw in the NBA.
• His response to the “isn’t pairing is slower?” question.
• The downsides of pairing.

It’s hard to find someone with more pairing experience (or even just engineering management experience) than Farhan, so he’s a voice well worth listening to.