i <3 sourcetree

Just a quick plug for Atlassian's Git/Mercurial client SourceTree It's a bit like... I dunno, a GPS for git. It took me a while to get a feel for git's multistage local repository model; how an edited file is just there (I think of it as being in a bit of a ghostly state), then you can "add" it, then "commit" it, then finally push it, and maybe then finally finally do a pull request. Having a visual history of branches, and their merges and commit infos, along with all branches locally and remote, and then a third section about the current action... it's so good.

Like with a GPS, I guess there's a chance that I'll be more empowered in general when I have it but less fluent when I don't, but that's a compromise I'm willing to live with, since I can get that understanding of the actual git command line pretty easily when I need to.