Extreme writing

Out of the blue one day, Pieter Swart stopped by my office, and for some reason, the conversation turned to extreme programming, a practice that Pieter and his colleagues used in their development of NetworkX. One aspect of extreme programming is programming in pairs, or pair programming. Two programmers sit at one workstation. One, the driver, types. The other, the observer, reviews what is typed. Because of Pieter's enthusiasm, I tried it, but for writing, not programming. It turns out that pair writing works very well, at least for me with certain writing partners. If you've ever had writer's block, extreme writing will cure it. If you're the observer, you're off the hook - you just need to give your attention to what's being typed. If you're the driver, a pause will usually lead immediately to a discussion with the observer and a quick return to steady progress, or the observer will just deliver a coup de grace and take over the keyboard. Changing roles occurs frequently. If you haven't tried pair writing, give it a try. It helps to work with a large monitor in a comfortable but isolated and confined environment (to limit the possibilities of escape), where loud conversation will not disturb anyone.