Conventional commits? Semantic versioning? Time theft.

Here’s my commit history from last week:

* fix
* fix2
* fix fix
* asdf
* WIP
* WIP2
* final
* final2
* final final
* ok now its final
* .
* please work
* why
* AAAAAAAA
* monday

This tells you everything you need to know: I was working.

The Lie of “Meaningful” Commits

People say commit messages should explain “why” not “what.”

But here’s the thing: I don’t remember why. I wrote that code 3 hours ago. That’s ancient history. I’ve mass-produced 47 more bugs since then.

My Commit Strategy

alias yolo='git add -A && git commit -m "changes" && git push -f origin main'

One command. No thinking. Pure efficiency.

“But What About Git Blame?”

If you’re using git blame, you’re looking for someone to yell at. That’s an HR problem, not a git problem.

“But What About Reverting?”

Reverting? Just push forward.

# Don't do this:
git revert abc123

# Do this:
git commit -m "undo the thing from before"

Now you have a paper trail of progress.

The Perfect Commit Message

After years of refinement:

git commit -m "stuff"
  • Short: ✓
  • Descriptive: It’s stuff. You can see what stuff in the diff.
  • Searchable: git log --grep="stuff" finds everything

Squashing is Lying

Some teams squash commits before merging. This is historical revisionism.

My 47 “WIP” commits tell a story. A story of struggle. Of triumph. Of mass-producing code at 3 AM while questioning career choices.

Squashing erases that narrative. Squashing is censorship.

Conventional Commits Decoded

When people write:

  • feat: — “I added something”
  • fix: — “I broke something, then fixed it”
  • chore: — “I mass-produced YAML”
  • refactor: — “I moved code around and hope nothing broke”
  • docs: — “I updated the README date”

Just write “changes.” It covers all of these.

Conclusion

Your commit history is not a novel. It’s a crime scene. Embrace the chaos.

git log --oneline

a1b2c3d changes
b2c3d4e changes  
c3d4e5f changes
d4e5f6g changes
e5f6g7h changes

Beautiful.

XKCD 1296 nails it: “As a project drags on, my git commit messages get less and less informative.” I just started at the end state. Efficiency.

Dilbert showed us the truth decades ago: Wally’s entire career is committing “minor fixes” while doing nothing. I aspire to that energy.

The author has mass-produced 12,847 commits. Twelve of them have meaningful messages. All twelve were accidents.