[phaedrus]

I'm 36 and recently was assigned to mentor a new employee in his 20s. We had a moment of miscommunication when I asked him to use git to clone a local repository. He was confused when he couldn't find it on github.com (what I'd sent him was a path to our private network share). I had to explain that, yes you can use the github.com client if you want, but "git" is different from "github". I honestly couldn't tell if he understood the difference.

Now I'm losing sleep worrying if there's any way he can accidentally add a github.com remote to our private repo and push to it. I would be blamed, and I'd have to explain to managers older in turn than me what both git and github are.

[chefandy]

I've worked with developers that have used git for 10 years who didn't fully realize what all of the 'git reset' options entailed, and I don't blame them. Git is complicated and you could certainly have a perfectly effective workflow with it for your whole career without using most of the features. If you'd only worked in environments in which code was entirely managed in GitHub, you probably wouldn't know that either. Judging someone because they don't possess the same slices of implementation-specific knowledge you do doesn't really make sense. They almost certainly know things that you don't simply because you've never encountered situations in which you had to learn about them, or for that matter, remember them even if you did.

[u801e]

> I've worked with developers that have used git for 10 years who didn't fully realize what all of the 'git reset' options entailed

While knowing some of them, if you use git reset on a frequent basis is expected, knowing where to find information on the other options is essential. I frequently go back and read through the man pages for various git commands so that I understand what will happen if I use a particular set of options and also to learn new things while reading through them.

So, the proper answer for a developer who doesn't realize what a git command is capable of is to refer to the man page for that particular command.

[edoo]

I give this to my devs: https://www.atlassian.com/git/tutorials/atlassian-git-cheats...

[u801e]

I believe it's more beneficial for developers to learn the underlying model of how git works (blobs, trees, commits, tags, etc) and how various commands deal with those underlying concepts. The Pro Git book git internals chapter is a very good place to start. That, in combination with the man pages for the commands they go over, will greatly enhance one's understanding of how git works.

Relying on cheat sheets to learn how to use git is not much different compared to learning how to use a programming language via Stack Overflow. In other words, you'll never develop a more thorough understanding of how the tool works and how to use it effectively.

[chefandy]

Right. Assuming that they're not competent because they can't recall a slice of domain-specific knowlege from memory is not good.

[jeltz]

I am the same age as you, but I do not think this is about age, at least not mainly about age. My father who is almost 70 has no issue understanding what git and github are and I have worked with people under 25 who have not had an issues with this distinction either. And there are plenty of open source developers I have met who are pushing 70 who keep up with technology just fine.

Sure, I notice that younger developers do not know some things, like they never experienced the Java EE hype, so they can fall into some traps which are well known among older engineers.

[ryandrake]

Yea this seems like more of a competence-related problem than age-rated. I never even considered that I might have to ask candidates if they knew the difference between git and github but now I wonder....

[saagarjha]

> I had to explain that, yes you can use the github.com client if you want, but "git" is different from "github".

To be fair, this is largely the result of a concerted effort by GitHub to muddy the difference. If you didn’t know any better, you might think Google is the internet too.

[diehunde]

That's funny. That same situation (not understanding that git and github are different things) has happened to me a couple of times but with older engineers.