Blog Post: Developing good habits by not committing code to your main branch.

_posts/blog/2022-03-29-dont-merge-master.md

@@ -0,0 +1,57 @@
+---
+title: "Developing Good Habits: Don't Commit Directly To Your Main Branch"
+author: chipoglesby
+comments: true
+date: "2022-03-29"
+layout: post
+slug: dont-commit-to-your-main-branch
+excerpt: You should treat each of your Github projects like you're working on a team.
+published: false
+categories:
+- sidenote
+---
+
+I had a epiphany recently that I should start doing all of my documentation work in Markdown and 
+Git; instead of doing some in Google Docs, some in Confluence and some in plain-text files.
+
+As I started researching if other people were doing this I came across all different types of
+stuff. There were software programs and many blog posts calling for the same type of thing!
+
+"This is great" I thought to myself as I read all of this. It felt like some type of validation
+because I wasn't crazy for trying this and I wasn't alone. 
+
+Then I came across an author who shared a lot of the same opinions I have on using Markdown
+and in one of their posts they suggested "just commit your work straight to your main branch."
+
+This got me thinking about how although this is "OKAY" to do, it shouldn't be your best practice.
+Getting into a habit of commit all of your work to a main branch, isn't just lazy, it's 
+also dangerous if you were to ever work in a development role that builds code.
+
+It reminds me of this meme I've seen before: 
+
+**_"So you're not really supposed to do this, but this is what we do."_** -- Don't be that person.
+
+![](https://storage.googleapis.com/www.chipoglesby.com/wrong.jpg)
+
+Ideally, if you're working by yourself or with more than one person, you will be creating
+branches to work on and then merging them into your main branch. 
+
+This isn't a hard and fast rule, but it's kind of like driving without wearing your
+seatbelt. If you don't, dangerous things can happen.
+
+Sometimes, depending on how I feel when I'm working on a side project, I will use
+Issues and pull requests and comments, just like if I were collborating when a coworker
+on a project. It's totally overkill when working by yourself, but it's also just good
+practice.
+
+For example this (reproducible research template)[https://github.com/chipoglesby/reproducibleResearchTemplate]
+that I came up with is a really great way to keep me organized and it lets 
+others see how I work through a project. Five or six years after I created that,
+which OMG is this year!, I should be able to come back and still use it and 
+produce the same results as when I first created it.
+
+Personally, I feel like developing good habits in the small things helps you
+be more successful in the large things. And please, don't get me wrong, I am
+nowhere near perfect. There are things that I know I'm suppose to do that I don't
+do because I need to cut a corner to make something work quickly or because I forgot
+something. I try to make those instances the exception and not the rule.