One of the things I really like about my new job is pair programming. On Tuesday of this week, there was a bit of a panic as we tried to figure out how we were going to get work done with everyone in different locations due to the impending snow storm on Wednesday. To me, it was almost comical. I mean, I had been working from home for the last 6 or so years. I never had someone looking over my shoulder as I wrote code. One day wasn’t going to be a big deal… was it? Given the way this team has worked for the last few years, there really was no plan for how to operate when we aren’t all in the same room. There was talk of iChat and sharing screens and some other not-so-simple-to-setup environment stuff, but in the end we coordinated what we were working on via chat and agreed we’d pair up on Thursday to review changes/updates we made or wanted to make. Even though I ended up doing the same on Thursday (no plow on my street all day, I couldn’t leave the house!), I was able to be productive and reviewed my work today with some team members. It was weird working from home again. It was definitely different - I had to use my home laptop and my office space was a bit of a wreck. It took a little while to get totally setup with the VPN etc, but I ended up cranking out some good work. My final conclusion is that I really like pairing, and working in an open space. Maybe I have great teammates, maybe I’m still in the honeymoon phase of pair programming, who knows, but for now, I’m loving it.