Not *really* on topic here, but maybe we should be teaching learners `git
reflog show` [1].  Everyone messes git up sometimes; Checking the reflog is
often the best fix when that happens.

On the other hand, the output of `reflog show` is *confusing*.  It would
certainly be a distraction and no one would fully understand what they're
seeing.  ...But you teach skydivers how to release the parachute before you
teach them how to pack it.

-Byron

[1] https://git-scm.com/docs/git-reflog

On Mon, Feb 29, 2016 at 4:00 PM, Terri Yu <[email protected]> wrote:

> Dealing with git is a huge pain.  When I screw something up in git, I have
> to take a deep breath, look things up on StackOverflow, and double check
> all my commands, so that I don't break something.  The only reason I
> learned it was because I had to learn it to contribute to open source
> projects.  And when I try to help newbies make their first open source
> contribution, the biggest roadblock is always git.  When I used version
> control for my solo research project, I used mercurial.  Mercurial is not
> just for small projects.  Python uses mercurial for their open source
> project.  Facebook recently started using Mercurial instead of Git [1].
>
> Terri
>
> [1]
> https://code.facebook.com/posts/218678814984400/scaling-mercurial-at-facebook/
>
> On Mon, Feb 29, 2016 at 3:51 PM, David Martin (Staff) <
> [email protected]> wrote:
>
>> We spend about 50 contact hours teaching our undergraduates the basics of
>> R. Even that is not enough. It has been said that you need 100 hours to
>> reach competency, and 1000 hours to master a subject. And the next stage is
>> 10,000 hours to be an expert..
>>
>> How much time has he invested in actually learning those skills? I was
>> totting up the time we spend teaching X versus the amount of complaints we
>> get that the students don't know X. There is a strong inverse correlation.
>> Folk want a cheap easy fix and have been promised that with computers. It
>> does exist but it has to be earned. You don't get cheap and easy for free.
>>
>> Dr David Martin
>> Lecturer in Bioinformatics
>> College of Life Sciences
>> University of Dundee
>>
>>
>> ________________________________________
>> From: Discuss <[email protected]> on behalf
>> of Lex Nederbragt <[email protected]>
>> Sent: 29 February 2016 20:43
>> To: Software Carpentry Discussion
>> Subject: Re: [Discuss] RajLab: From reproducibility to
>> over-reproducibility
>>
>> Hi all and thanks for the many responses.
>>
>> My feeling reading this post was about tools (partly echoing Greg): 'we'
>> know 'all of us' should use the appropriate tool, e.g. version control (is
>> that what you call the moral high-ground?). But for the novice, these
>> tools/methods have steep learning curves, thus high upfront time
>> investment, and no immediate benefit (!!!). There is a burden on 'us' to
>> convince 'others' of the need to invest time to adopt these tools.
>>
>> I am not sure whether more convincing (how? Research-based evidence?) or
>> training is the answer, versus much easier to learn and use tools.
>>
>>    Lex
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>> The University of Dundee is a registered Scottish Charity, No: SC015096
>>
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