[malingo]

The key is to not introduce git in the context of a real codebase. The codebase is precious, and git (for a beginner) is a a bunch of confusing, sharp tools. The cost of a misstep is too high.

Working with a "throwaway" local repo was crucial when I was learning git. It was just a handful of gibberish text files in a few directories, and I experimented with "what happens when I run this git command?", comparing what actually happened with my expectations of what would happen.