🗂️ Git has an unfortunate name

Git, which was created 20 years, 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.