Thought I didn't need to learn Git. Got humbled fast.

Been painting houses for 15 years. Decided to learn coding on the side six months ago. I skipped Git because it felt like extra paperwork. Then I lost three days of work when my laptop crashed. Had no backup, no version history. Spent a whole weekend piecing it back together from memory. Never again. Anyone else skip a basic tool and pay for it later?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_alex6d ago

Git's one of those things where you don't realize you need it until you're in the mud. Start small with just "git init," "git add," and "git commit" in a local folder. That's enough to save your work every hour and roll back if you mess something up. You don't need branches or remotes at first, just a habit of typing three commands before you close for the day. Saves you exactly the kind of weekend you just had.

cooper.reese5d ago

60% of the time I see people getting in trouble with git because they started with just those three commands and then accidentally committed into a weird state and had no idea how to get out. @the_alex I get the idea of keeping it simple but the problem is those basic commands don't teach you how to actually understand what's happening to your history. I've watched three different interns nuke their whole project because they thought git commit was a saving mechanism and not a permanent record.