Slashdot Mirror
The Friendship That Made Google Huge (newyorker.com)
Coding together at the same computer, Jeff Dean and Sanjay Ghemawat changed the course of the company -- and the Internet. An anonymous reader writes: The New Yorker has profiled Jeff Dean and Sanjay Ghemawat, two of Google's most storied developers and to date, the company's only Senior Fellows, the highest level Google awards to engineers. The article dives into some of Dean and Ghemawat's successes at Google but focuses on their deep and collaborative friendship -- particularly exploring the power of programming with a partner. "I don't know why more people don't do it," Ghemawat explains. As Dean points out, all you need to do is "find someone that you're gonna pair-program with who's compatible with your way of thinking, so that the two of you together are a complementary force."
^ oops, cut all the numbers in half, since INTP+INTJ is the same as INTJ+INTP (and so on).
Just to add, pairing two programmers with the SAME personality type is generally a waste... they'll both get stuck on the same problems, fall into the same traps, and often either bicker or tune out while the other is "in charge".
Pair an INTP with an ENTP, and they'll derail each other in no time flat. They'll probably have a great time, and might come up with a brilliant, creative solution to the wrong problem, but are unlikely to accomplish their goal (or even remember what it WAS).
Pairing a "N" type with a complementary "S" type might help when it comes down to things like "AI vs UI work", but you'd arguably get more done with a xNxx (AI) and a xSxx (UI) if you had a good project manager just split up the task & had both programmers simultaneously working on the sub-task they enjoy & excel at (N-types tend to be theoreticians who LOVE things like AI, but come up with the ugliest & most dysfunctional UIs on earth... S-types tend to be artisans who get immense satisfaction out of making a beautiful, polished UI, but get frustrated with more abstract things like AI. HOWEVER, N and S types CAN complement each other well in areas like computer vision... just not necessarily touching the same code simultaneously. Put them together to brainstorm, then let them be inspired & go explore on their own for a while.
The main problem with pairing ENxx types with INxx types is that it tends to get the INxx type mowed over and bulldozed... at best, the INxx gets shoved aside, bored, and tunes out. Both groups add insight to each other (the ENxx types expand the INxx types' horizons & inspire them to "think big"), but they work better as teammates than pairs.
Getting back to INTP+INTJ... it works so well because both types easily see around each other's roadblocks, effortlessly spot each other's typos + oversights, and generally follow meandering paths towards the same goal. It's important that they regard each other as equivalently-competent, but ideally each will be an expert in a slightly different aspect of the problem.
INTP+INFJ or INFP+INTJ can work, but the 'F' partner is more likely to be unintentionally insulted by the 'T' partner, or read into motives that don't actually exist. Likewise, a badly-frustrated 'F' can sink a verbal dagger pretty deeply into their 'N' complement and *really* hurt their feelings in a way few other types are capable of (INTx types get accused of having no feelings, but the reality is that they have a Jeckyl-Hyde relationship with their feelings... they're rightfully scared *shitless* of them, and work hard to keep them safely locked away for everyone's safety & well-being lest they explode out like a shaken bottle of Diet Coke).
The point is, different types all have valuable insight, but not all of them can intimately work *together* as a pair. Some combos are better left as teammates & coworkers for everyone's sake, and others are better off collaborating briefly, in small chunks, before going back to working on their own.