"Person does something stupid, blames tools" >< In general: commit before you start doing major tree/history manipulation stuff like merging; committing is wh

"Person does something stupid, blames tools" >< In general: commit before you start doing major tree/history manipulation stuff like merging; committing is what makes your data really secure! This is not a subtle point, it's merely common sense, and because of git's "commits are lightweight, local, and amendable" model, there's little excuse not to commit. [It seems somewhat likely this person was used to subversion, which has much more heavyweight commits and a more limited model, and thus requires doing more stuff while in an uncommitted state. But "like subversion" is not synonymous with "good practice."]