🗂️ Git has an unfortunate name

Git, which was created 20 years, and various hosting platforms, has revolutionized software development workflow and collaboration. The name Git was chosen by its creator, Linus Torvalds, and has a humorous backstory rooted in both practicality and world-class trolling. In British slang, “git” is an insult meaning an unpleasant or silly person, which Torvalds acknowledged with characteristic Finnish bluntness: “I’m an egotistical ___, and I name all my projects after myself. First Linux, now Git.”

Most of us software developers, especially in OSS culture, appreciate a little humor and self-deprecation (it’s basically a job requirement at this point). However, those from other disciplines seem to have an inexplicable aversion to anything with the word “git” in it. Perhaps this is understandable – why would I ever use a tool that literally calls me stupid in the name? That must mean I’m stupid if I use it, right? This appears to be a subconscious psychological defense mechanism that is surprisingly hard to overcome. It unfolds something like this:

• Developer (D): Hey, why don’t we use Git* for this project? It handles all our file management problems with some project management tools thrown in.
• Project Manager (P): Great idea! (Famous last words)
• D: Can you comment on that “Git” PR I just posted?
• P: Sure.
• <deafening silence>
• D: Can you push the new product specification you wrote to the “Git” repo in Markdown so we can track and review changes?
• P: Sure! (Proceeds to email a Word doc like it’s still 2003)
• <developer dies a little inside>
• D: Can you test the new release in “Git”? (link to Git* release).
• P: (a little while later) Can you just email the files to Nick? (Git? What Git?)
• D: <internal screaming intensifies>
• D: (at the weekly status meeting) Why am I the only one tracking my tasks in “GitHub” issues?
• P: Good question, we should all do that. (Immediately forgets and goes back to sticky notes)
• <the sound of one developer crying>
• D: Why don’t people use “Git” when it has most of the file management, collaboration, and PM tools we need?
• P: It’s too hard. (Says the person who maintains a 47-tab Gantt chart in Excel)
• D: It’s a lot simpler than a mega Gantt chart in Excel, or a 3D model in SolidWorks.
• P: True. (Goes back to Excel anyway)
• <the void stares back>

The only rational conclusion I can come up with is that the word “Git” somehow triggers a Pavlovian response in most people’s brains that makes them physically unable to click on anything Git-related. It’s like some kind of linguistic kryptonite. Only a minority of battle-hardened software nerds, especially those who’ve been sufficiently traumatized by OSS projects, have managed to overcome the existential crisis of using a tool that openly mocks them.