At this point I think we need to define what it means to "learn git properly". The assumption in this discussion is that it is more than learn a few concrete co

At this point I think we need to define what it means to "learn git properly". The assumption in this discussion is that it is more than learn a few concrete commands for specific tasks in a few minutes. You say 3 hours is sufficient, but is it? For example, something as simple as "Changing the Last Commit" (as in "git commit --amend") is found in chapter 7.6 in the git book which is given as main documentation on git-scm.org. The first 6 chapter mainly deal with introducing the model, architecture and high level workflows. Even if you skip the chapter on github, that's still 5 chapters on mostly theory to read before you get to some often-used tool commands. I would argue that is more than 3 hours for most people if you don't just skim it but try to also understand it. Apart from that, to answer the question: indeed, often I don't have 3 hours for something to be considered "nice to know" as opposed to "absolutely necessary". And if the manual is a "fsckin'" one, I'm unlikely to read it at all.