I remember a post on HN about how YAML was a terrible serialization format. A stricter subset of YAML (eg - StrictYaml) wouldve solved every single problem ment

I remember a post on HN about how YAML was a terrible serialization format. A stricter subset of YAML (eg - StrictYaml) wouldve solved every single problem mentioned there. Similarly, the solution to git is a subset of git (strict git). Gits problem is that it is too powerful and assumes that it's users are all git experts. You should be able to run git in 'easy-mode'. Add, commit, checkout new branch, revert, squash merge. That's all 90% of people need. Then the intermediate folks can run it in mode 2, adding the ability to rebase, reset heads, cherry pick, revert, stash etc. This covers the next 9%. The last 1% can use it in mode 3 for the rest. Once you take away the fear of what you could break, git becomes far less intimidating.