[delecti]

This, so much this. Lots of times where I've seemed like a git whiz, it's really just that I've got a marginally better understanding of how git really works. Git is much easier to use when you wrap your head around how commits and branches are internally represented.

[seba_dos1]

I think there's some confusion around the meaning of "internally represented" seen in this thread. I wouldn't really call it "internal representation", as then people complain that a tool shouldn't make them learn its implementation details - and they're right, but that's not what happens here.

You don't have to learn how git-the-tool represents things internally. However, you absolutely should learn how git-the-model-of-a-repository represents things, because that's what you're operating on. Git is a tool to manipulate repositories, just like LibreOffice is a tool to manipulate documents. You don't need to learn how ODF stores things in zipped XMLs (just like you don't have to learn how git stores things in its content-addressable filesystem), but you need to understand what paragraphs, words, pages or slides are as this is the model you're working on (just like you need to understand what commits, branches and refs are and how they form a graph).

Unlike LibreOffice, git doesn't make it easy to understand its model just by using it (you could even say that it actively misguides you, although it has good reasons to do so), so you usually have to read some docs to grasp it.

[delecti]

I don't think git is unusual in that regard, and I think those complaints would be unjustified. Loads of tools work totally fine with only the barest understanding of how to use them, occasionally have problems that require a bit more understanding of their internal model, and even more rarely require deep knowledge of their internal model. I think most development teams would be totally fine with only a single member who has a slightly better understanding of the internal model. That knowledge only comes into play very rarely for me. If nobody were available with that knowledge, those teams could make do by simply copying the work into unmanaged text files for a few minutes and then just "manually" override the botched merge that got them into trouble.