There is no one size fits all in software development.<p>For 90% of the programmers in 90% of the environments which are at best average, will spend 90% of their time spent on debugging code that refuses to work as intended.<p>As a lone programmer bugs often drains ones will power. Speaking of drain, another big mental drain is decision making, deciding between choices, naming, file organisation.<p>Pair programming - for me is two people working on the same ticket/issue, exchanging frequent feedback and being available to jump in to debug issues or offer ideas/feedback on code organisation or strategies.