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Git is so pervasive in software development that I think you will be at a disadvantage if you give up on it. This is the sort of situation where I would recomm

Git is so pervasive in software development that I think you will be at a disadvantage if you give up on it. This is the sort of situation where I would recommend taking a step back, finding a good book that covers the topic, and read it cover to cover. At least for me, taking time outs like this to learn something in an academic manner has paid big dividends over the years.

octygen 6y ago
I have to agree with this. It's an essential skill. There are great courses on LinkedIn and Coursera for free (even if you don't get the respective subscriptions).
mic47 6y ago
> Git is so pervasive in software development that I think you will be at a disadvantage if you give up on it. I would call BS on this. Yes, git is pervarsive, but if you learn alternative tool (mercurial, perforce, even svn), you will find that learning git (at least for being productive on team that uses git) is straightforward. Also, haven't seen a company that actually tried during interviews ti figure out if you know how to use git or not.
- majewsky 6y ago
  Disagree. I learned Git after working with SVN for years. Knowing SVN put me at no advantage whatsoever. If anything, I had to actively get SVN habits out of my brain to make the most out of Git (e.g. SVN trains you to avoid branches because their merging is a hot mess, but in Git, branches are everywhere).
  - mic47 6y ago
    But you were able to be productive on those projects with git, even if you didn't use it optimally, or to full extend, right?
    - majewsky 6y ago
      Sure, but that's moving the goalposts so much that you're invalidating your entire premise.
mavsman 6y ago
I agree with this first paragraph. But disagree with the second. Depends on what kind of learning style you have but I don't think a book is the best format for learning git (or most programming concepts for that matter). You probably already understand most concepts of git already anyway, but the devil is in the details and it sounds like that's where you're getting stuck. If you're a book person for technical things, though, then go for it. I'd suggest that anytime you go into a situation where you're not sure if you'll mess something up, just make a full copy of your project on your local file system. Then try stuff out on the copy. Then you can try branching and such without the fear of messing anything up. Once you get it, you can repeat the process over and over to make sure you know it. You have to be able to fail without fear of wasting days of your time.

octygen 6y ago

I have to agree with this. It's an essential skill. There are great courses on LinkedIn and Coursera for free (even if you don't get the respective subscriptions).

mic47 6y ago

> Git is so pervasive in software development that I think you will be at a disadvantage if you give up on it. I would call BS on this. Yes, git is pervarsive, but if you learn alternative tool (mercurial, perforce, even svn), you will find that learning git (at least for being productive on team that uses git) is straightforward. Also, haven't seen a company that actually tried during interviews ti figure out if you know how to use git or not.

majewsky 6y ago
Disagree. I learned Git after working with SVN for years. Knowing SVN put me at no advantage whatsoever. If anything, I had to actively get SVN habits out of my brain to make the most out of Git (e.g. SVN trains you to avoid branches because their merging is a hot mess, but in Git, branches are everywhere).
- mic47 6y ago
  But you were able to be productive on those projects with git, even if you didn't use it optimally, or to full extend, right?
  - majewsky 6y ago
    Sure, but that's moving the goalposts so much that you're invalidating your entire premise.

mavsman 6y ago

I agree with this first paragraph. But disagree with the second. Depends on what kind of learning style you have but I don't think a book is the best format for learning git (or most programming concepts for that matter). You probably already understand most concepts of git already anyway, but the devil is in the details and it sounds like that's where you're getting stuck. If you're a book person for technical things, though, then go for it. I'd suggest that anytime you go into a situation where you're not sure if you'll mess something up, just make a full copy of your project on your local file system. Then try stuff out on the copy. Then you can try branching and such without the fear of messing anything up. Once you get it, you can repeat the process over and over to make sure you know it. You have to be able to fail without fear of wasting days of your time.