When I first understood git, after dedicating some hours to watching a video and reading long articles, it was like I finally had power over time. I can find out who changed what, and when. I can move branches to point right where I want. I can rewrite history!
Understanding a tool well enough that using it is a joy, not a pain, is like gaining a new superpower. Like I’m Batman, and I just added something new to my toolbelt. I am ready to track down latent bug-villains with git bisect! Merge problems, I will defeat you with frequent commits and regular rebasing – you are no match for me now!
What if Spiderman posted his rope spinner design online, and you downloaded the plans for your 3D printer, and suddenly you could shoot magic sticky rope at any time? You’d find a lot more uses for rope. Not like now, when it’s down in the basement and all awkward to use. Use it for everyday, not-flashy things like grabbing a pencil that’s out of reach, or rolling up your laptop power cable, or reaching for your coffee – ok not that! spilled everywhere. Live and learn.
Git was like that for me. I solve problems I didn’t know I had, like “which files in this repository haven’t been touched since our team took over maintenance?” or “when was this derelict function last used?” or “who would know why this test matters?”
Every new tool that I master is a new superpower. On the Mac or linux, command-line utilities like grep and cut and uniq give me power over file manipulation – they’re like the swingy grabby rope-shooter-outers. For more power, Roopa engages Splunk, which is like the Batmobile of log parsing: flashy and fast, doesn’t fit in small spaces. On Windows, Powershell is at your fingertips, after you’ve put some time in at the dojo. Learn what it can do, and how to look it up – superpowers expand on demand!
Other days I’m Superman. When I grasp a new concept, or practice a new style of coding until the flow of it sinks in, then I can fly. Learning new mathy concepts, or how and when to use types or loops versus recursion or objects versus functions — these aren’t in my toolbelt. They flow from my brain to my fingertips. Like X-ray vision, I can see through this imperative task to the monad at its core.
Sometimes company policy says, “You may not download vim” or “you must use this coding style.” It’s like they handed me a piece of Kryptonite.
For whatever problem I’m solving, I have choices. I can kick it down, punch it >POW!< and run away before it wakes up. Or, I can determine what superpower would best defeat it, acquire that superpower, and then WHAM! defeat it forever. Find its vulnerability, so that problems of its ilk will never trouble me again. Sometimes this means learning a tool or technique. Sometimes it means writing the tool. If I publish the tool and teach the technique, then everyone can gain the same superpower! for less work than it took me. Teamwork!
We have the ultimate superpower: gaining superpowers. The only hard part is, which ones to gain? and sometimes, how to explain this to mortals: no, I’m not going to kick this door down, I’m going to build a portal gun, and then we won’t even need doors anymore.
Those hours spent learning git may have been the most productive of my life. Or maybe it was learning my first functional language. Or SQL. Or regular expressions. The combination of all of them makes my unique superhero fighting style. I can do a lot more than kick.
I feel the same way! Not just for tools, but more generally any new knowledge. It takes time to read and understand, and it takes discipline to allocate that time and to stick with it… but at the end you come out feeling stronger