I do this all the time on the GitHub repo itself. I'll have an idea for a small tangential feature (like per-repo pageview stats) that I want to spend an hour h

I do this all the time on the GitHub repo itself. I'll have an idea for a small tangential feature (like per-repo pageview stats) that I want to spend an hour hacking on to see if it goes anywhere. By branching off master, I can experiment to my heart's content and then just shelve the feature easily if I don't finish it. Then later on, getting it back is just a single command away. Git really is a hacker's best friend. It facilitates exploration and experimentation of code. Fits perfectly with a startup mentality.