It's very productive and a lot of fun too. When you find someone who's a good wingman, things just click.
I can understand you're concern about getting matched poorly but the experience I had with pair programming is that there is a much greater chance you'll end up working well together and a much smaller chance than you might imagine that things don't work out.
In fact, you could say that pair programming is a great way to develop that rapport with a coworker. It's not just good for the company because the work is done better, I think it's good for you as a person, because people no matter how introverted are really wired to be social.
If someone were really just a toad and would be worse than useless as a partner, chances are that same kind of person won't want to do pair programming with you anyhow.
I can understand you're concern about getting matched poorly but the experience I had with pair programming is that there is a much greater chance you'll end up working well together and a much smaller chance than you might imagine that things don't work out.
In fact, you could say that pair programming is a great way to develop that rapport with a coworker. It's not just good for the company because the work is done better, I think it's good for you as a person, because people no matter how introverted are really wired to be social.
If someone were really just a toad and would be worse than useless as a partner, chances are that same kind of person won't want to do pair programming with you anyhow.