Do you write Web applications speaking to backends without javascript and using just HTML and CSS or static websites which are improved with animations requiring javascript?
It's like saying basketball is inefficient, when I pass the ball to a team mate I can loose it, better if I run the whole field on my own.
Programming is mostly a team sport as well, involving backend and frontend engineers, qa, design, product owners.
I mean, I would say basketball is inefficient: having one person run the ball or maybe two reliable players pass it across the whole court definitely seems most efficient.
The only twist in basketball is that there's another team trying to stop you from achieving your goal (which would also add to the appeal of mob programming greatly!)
I think it's a very interesting concept, comparable to brainstorming. Devs share lots of knowledge during sessions and learn from each other ways of solving issues. I thought about it more as a learning exercise.
>We adopted the terminology from Code with the Wisdom of the Crowd by Mark Pearl:
>One person controls the keyboard, this is the typist. The rest of the mob discusses the problem, agrees on the solution, and instructs the typist. The typist follows their instructions, puts them into code, and may ask clarifying questions to understand the solution. The rest of the mob guides the typist as needed.
>We value the typist as they allow the rest of the mob to focus on solving the problem.
>The typist must not code on their own. This balances the participation of all team members and it reduces the dominance of strong characters.
This sounds like a lot of fun for people who have personality traits I don’t posses. I think I would end up quietly stewing that I keep getting talked over and nobody listens to my ideas. Nevermind that my ideas turn out to be wrong in the end.
There's a difference between making a definite claim and pointing out that Newton's model allows the existence of such an object. I'm not going into "quid est veritas?" type of discussions because it's a bottomless pit that leads nowhere, but it seems to me like "black holes could exist" is a statement much like "an artificial general intelligence could exist". It's not ruled out by the model, but a-priori we have no idea.
