Pair programming with Scott Joplin

The nerves of the junior. You know things, but the lack of experience tells you that you don't know things.

Suddenly, right at the start of a pair programming session, you are assigned to work with someone named Scott Joplin.

Scott Joplin has a lush, dense, dark mustache, ending in curves.

He shares his screen and shows me the structure of the repository and the flow of calls between services, then asks me if I want coffee.

If I want to become a senior, I have to obey the coffee, I write in my notes, while he leaves the screen.

When he returns, Scott Joplin looks at me intently, he had black eyes.

After looking to one side and the other, he shows me the playlist of songs prepared for the next PBI in the backlog.

A certain Scott Joplin sounds on the other side of the screen and another Scott Joplin begins to type.

That's how I discovered the reason for that nickname, that enigmatic developer, whose name circulated in all areas of the company. Scott Joplin the developer listened to Scott Joplin the musician to develop, that's how it was.

Listening to his music, to the rhythm of ragtime, Scott Joplin the developer makes a note of something relevant, like a syntax, and goes back to typing.

I stir my coffee, on the other side of the screen.

In a clumsy act, my spoon falls, and I fall to my knees on the floor, spilling a little coffee on the floorboard, and I look up at the ceiling.

But there is no ceiling, only sky, and ragtime plays, and there are clouds that you can see but not touch.

We are all juniors except You, I write in my notes.