I have never had to resort to this technique. However, there's a lot in git I don't understand. I've spent multiple days learning git, and at some point, the

I have never had to resort to this technique. However, there's a lot in git I don't understand. I've spent multiple days learning git, and at some point, the diminishing returns of further investment don't justify themselves. If I broke my repo in such a way that caused me to consider re-cloning to "get out of jail", I probably would only do it if I didn't lose a significant amount of work. (e.g. copy in-progress files to a safe location before recloning) You say I have very little excuse for my ignorance, but I would also say that I have very little excuse to spend any more time learning a tool with as many dark corners as git.