I like pair programming and think I learned a ton by being the junior “driving” while the senior was “navigating.”

But I’ve also had some nightmare scenarios with people who just massively slack and do nothing. I worked with someone who wanted to “navigate” in 10/10 sessions and never said anything. They just watched me do stuff, didn’t respond to questions, didn’t work on docs, didn’t look stuff up. It was weird.

Mismatches like this made me eventually stop doing it as the team ended up separating out to pairs of superstars and pairs who did nothing. And it demoralized people.

Clearly this person is not throwing shade a pair programming, but lazy employees who might skate by doing lots of "pair programming" without pulling their weight.

I've come across people that are very good at getting "help" on their work to the point that they do very little work.

GP isn't talking about Pair programming in general. Pair programming is great. But quote-unquote "Pair Programming", where only one person does the work... not really. Been there done that.