git has a terrible UI, IMO. git reset, for instance, does like 17 different things. And what does checkout have to do with creating branches as in "git checkout

git has a terrible UI, IMO. git reset, for instance, does like 17 different things. And what does checkout have to do with creating branches as in "git checkout -b"? Not that git branch is that much better, it's conflating creating, listing and deleting under one command (named after a verb or singular noun). Compare to hg's branch/branches or fossil's even clearer convention of noun + action, like in "fossil branch new ...". That said, you are right that understanding the git model helps a lot and for that, I recommend the "Getting Git" talk. https://vimeo.com/14629850 https://vimeo.com/14629850