> Coming from a family of carpenters, I can assure you none of them really know that much at all about the internals of the table saw. Maybe a little bit. Ever

> Coming from a family of carpenters, I can assure you none of them really know that much at all about the internals of the table saw. Maybe a little bit. Every carpenter I know knows how to change the blade, tighten the arbor, check the fence, adjust riving knives, clean away the dust, tension the belts (if applicable) and maybe even change the motor. And there isn't much more to a table saw. Getting back to Git, I agree with your sentiment "Within Git, there is a much smaller and clearer CVS struggling to get out.". Most of us should strive to stay within the set of simple git operations. However, then there's all the other corner cases that are sometimes applicable. Such as clearing away your accidentally published private keys using `git filter-branch`. Most of us will never need this, but it's there for a reason. But if one groks the "DAG of commits" concept behind git, you can understand what filter-branch does and why and how. It's not a very complex concept. Again, I won't defend the inconsistent user interface. It could be better. But even that can be understood when needed by looking at the documentation as long as the concept is clear.