You learn to talk aloud instead of just doing everything in your head. Two minds are always better than one. It becomes a great collaboration.

This gets combined with how they "fire" people there. If your pair isn't keeping up and contributing enough, then people stop wanting to pair with them and they get rotated out to another team or entirely. That effectively means that the person sitting next to you, can actually help you.

It does get really intense because if you're having a hard day or week say in your personal life, you still have to be on your game or you have to explain your situation as best as you can. But the thing is, everyone who walked into the door of Pivotal, knew the rules ahead of time. You were there, because you wanted to be there, not because it was just another job.

I liken it a lot to joining the military, which is what it felt like. A bit cultish too. All-in-all, I had a great experience there, learned a ton, and it changed my thinking forever.