The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source

Git your reset on (Interview)

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Feb 15, 2022

Annie Sexton, a UX Engineer at Render and author of the insightful blog post 'Git Organized: A Better Git Flow,' shares her revolutionary approach to Git workflows. She advocates using 'reset' instead of 'rebase' to streamline collaboration and reduce cognitive load. Annie dives into the intricacies of maintaining clean commit histories and discusses the balance between individual feature development and teamwork. She also addresses cognitive challenges in Git management and emphasizes aligning workflows with personal strengths for enhanced efficiency. Join her journey of curiosity and innovation in software development!

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ANECDOTE

Early Git Struggles

Adam Stacoviak recalls an intimidating experience with Git early in his career.
He needed extensive support to resolve a rebasing issue, highlighting Git's complexity.

INSIGHT

Learning Git

Most developers learn Git by memorizing commands before fully understanding its workings.
This initial superficial understanding contributes to Git's perceived intimidation.

ADVICE

The Reset Method

Focus on building the feature first, making work-in-progress (WIP) commits without detailed messages.
After completing the feature, use git reset to clean up the commit history logically.

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This week we’re joined by Annie Sexton, UX Engineer at Render, to talk about her blog post titled Git Organized: A Better Git Flow that made the internet explode when she suggested using reset instead of rebase for a better git flow. On this show we talk about the git flow she suggests and why, how this flow works for her when she’s hacking on the Render codebase (and when she uses it), the good and the bad of Git, and we also talked about the cognitive load of Git commits as you work.

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Featuring:

Annie Sexton – Website, LinkedIn, X
Adam Stacoviak – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X
Jerod Santo – GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X

Show Notes:

Something missing or broken? PRs welcome!