[geezerjay]

Is it that hard to understand that `git add` adds files to the list of files tracked by the repository (which is updated when changes are committed to it) and `git checkout` checks out a version that has been previously committed?

I mean, that's pretty much how all version control systems operate. Is it that hard to wrap anyone's head around the basic functionality that is common to any version control system in use?

[throwanem]

No, it's not that hard to understand. It's also not how Git actually works. You're ignoring, or perhaps forgetting, the concepts of the index ("staging area"), and the many and various things which both these commands actually do, and the fashions in which these sorts of "oh, it's simple, really!" elisions betray those not yet experienced enough to recognize them for the overextended abstractions they are.