2006 May: My first exposure to revision control systems was while working at AccuWeather. The system (CVS) used file locking and only a few developers had access. Shuffling my commits to them for check in/out was painful.

2008 July: Started bookmarking articles for reference: version control and SVN. SVN was more curiosity than necessity for me. I used it to install and update WordPress but little else.

2009 February: Began noticing Git articles. My focus had shifted into enterprise technology / consulting and away from development though.

2010 March: Joined GitHub to track jQuery plugins I was using. My interest was piqued after reading about using Git for deployment.

2011 July: GitHub for Mac debuts. I started using Git to track GravDept’s front-end code, and absolutely hosed my first few repos. I learned having a perfect history doesn’t matter. Just commit again and carry on.

2011 October: Collaborating on a project at Brooklyn Alpha wherein I bemusedly suggest using GitHub to distribute the work. It works surprisingly well with a just a few commands. Watched two fascinating videos on Git’s internals: Linus Torvlads and Randal Schwartz.

2012 March: Defined a repo naming convention for Git/GitHub in my projects. Solved the puzzle of not disrupting existing structures or workflow.

Why this matters

Learning isn’t always something that happens at a time/place (university) or from stimulus (project needs X). Five years of casual observation and tinkering instilled a foundation of knowledge without planning or need.

Just listen and stay open. A use will find you.