[osigurdson]

I'd much rather people think deeply about summarizing their work. This helps others understand it but, more importantly, helps the developer understand what they did. If its hard to summarize, maybe it should be tightened up a little for instance. Enforcing a "schema" might help a tiny bit but also can cause people to check out a little as it can feel like just another meaningless process.

[jeremyjh]

Exactly. People latch onto these perfunctory standards because it’s easier than understanding and clearly communicating the work they’ve done.

[c-hendricks]

Or they could be used as a stepping stone in teaching people the value of being able to summarize what they've done?

[jeremyjh]

How does typing “fix:” or “feat:” get you a step closer to being thoughtful?

[c-hendricks]

To be honest I'm not really sure. I'm also not really sure how tipping "fix:" or "feat:" means people are not understanding their work and performing perfunctory actions though.

[jeremyjh]

It doesn't force that, but it gives them an out. They can type "fix: frobnicator bug" and think they've written a good commit message because it meets the standard.