Got a pal pushing pair programming on me as a new coder

He says it's faster to learn with someone guiding you. I worry I'll just copy without understanding. Do beginners really benefit from coding with others right away?

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3 Comments

elizabethh637mo ago

Yeah that worry makes total sense, I felt the same way starting out. Your pal isn't wrong about it speeding things up, but you gotta make sure it's a back and forth thing. Maybe try it for short sessions where you ask tons of questions and they talk through their logic. That way you're not just watching, you're digging into the why behind the code. It's easy to just go passive and copy, so you have to be super active about it.

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alexc937mo ago

Elizabethh63 has a point about not going passive, but honestly? That sounds like a lot of work for just starting out. Sometimes you just gotta bang your head against a simple problem alone to really get it. Having someone there all the time might stop you from building that basic gut feel for why things break. For easy beginner stuff, it can feel like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

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the_charlie7mo ago

Totally get what you mean about banging your head against the wall to build that gut feel... I did the exact same thing when I was starting. What worked for me was setting a hard timer, like 30 minutes of pure struggle, before I'd even think about asking for a hint. That forced me to really stare at the problem and make dumb mistakes I could learn from, but it also stopped me from wasting a whole day in frustration.

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