My manager thinks full-day pair programming is great for collaboration, but I'm struggling with it. It feels like someone is looking over my shoulder constantly, which ruins my focus and leaves me totally drained by the end of the day. Should I tactfully tell my manager how this is affecting me? How do you all feel about pair programming?

What are some of the trends in reference to programming language usage in the industry now? I'm currently an IT Service Desk analyst with a degree in Computer Science, and I want to get back into software development/coding. What program languages would you recommend brushing up on or any general tips you have for breaking into that space again?

My current full-time job is a total dead end and I'm miserable, but it's stable. A recruiter reached out about a contract-to-hire position that's exactly what I want to be doing, but I'm wondering if it's just going to be a glorified temp job. Would it be crazy to leave a permanent position for this?

What’s your take on oversized Pull Requests? Knowing that it’s the norm of AI assisted development, automation hasn’t still caught up with humans reviewing the changes.. I would and still reject overly large PRs for reasons outside of testing and fixtures.

Ageism sucks. And I see older folks constantly subjected to it. But let's be clear, ageism isn't *just* towards older people. A common occurance is older people trying to pull rank on younger developers, even when the younger devs are clearly more qualified. It seems the more meaningful distinction is not age or years of experience - but whether or not you care about your work, and have continued to refine your taste and explore new ideas. Maybe we need a new metric: "Years of new experience".