Is Pair Programming Dead? | Code Quality & Engineering Culture Debate

Summary This week on Overcommitted, Brittany, Bethany, and Erika try out a new format: instead of interviewing a guest, the three of them rate a running list of software engineering topics as overrated or underrated. They start with the fun stuff — dark mode, mechanical keyboards, standing desks, Vim, dotfiles — before moving into practices and process, where the real disagreements show up. Pair programming and code review as a quality gate both get contested, with opinions that have shifted noticeably since AI tools entered the picture. From there the conversation covers stand-ups, sprint retros, story point estimation, 1:1s with managers, microservices, serverless, feature flags, software rewrites, vibe coding, and the myth of the 10x engineer, with each host landing in a different place on more than a few of them. It's a faster-paced, more opinionated episode than usual, and a good one for anyone who wants to hear three engineers who've worked together for years actually disagree on record. Links Loop Engineering Blog Post: https://brittany-ellich.offprint.app/a/3mrjj34puva23-108-prs-in-eight-days-accidentally-discovering-loop-engineering Steve Yegge Blog Post: https://yegge.ai/essays/the-shape-of-things-to-come/ Rewrites Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhlnan0dSUE&t=5s Sean Goedecke Article: https://www.seangoedecke.com/you-dont-have-to-be-smart-if-you-think-clearly/ Hosts Overcommitted: ⁠https://overcommitted.dev ⁠Bethany Janos: ⁠https://www.trustyduck.dev/⁠ Brittany Ellich: ⁠https://brittanyellich.com ⁠Erika Eggemeyer: ⁠https://github.com/eggyhead