Do you GitHub? (version management as practice)

People ask “do you GitHub?” like it’s a yes/no personality quiz.

Yes. Loudly. Also: which GitHub, for what, and who is allowed to see it?

This is not a tutorial. git commit -m already has enough priests. This is how version management shows up on my bench when the work is a studio, a job hunt, and a pile of instruments that should not share one embarrassing history.

What GitHub is for (here)

Receipts. A dated trail of what changed and why.

Blast radius. Product repos stay product repos. Research parking lots stay private. Job-search trackers do not hitch a ride inside Synesis.

Collaboration with agents that still have adults on publish. Agents can prepare commits. I still decide what gets pushed. “Ask before push” is egress control for my reputation.

Job-hunt signal, selectively. Public studio/code that I’d defend in an interview can wear a link. Private ideation hubs and docs-only product homes do not need to 404 for strangers just to look busy.

The shape I actually use

• Product / studio homes under my account when they’re meant to be real (LiveBytes site work, apps that earned a name).
• Private research hub for “I need software, stat!” scans and splinters – theater-music itch lists, models research, playbooks. Graduate out when something earns architecture and locked decisions (Arkiton left limbo on purpose).
• Local-first tools with their own trees so mail, life ops, and job-search analytics don’t become one mega-repo of vibes.

Branches and PRs when the change needs review air. Direct-to-main when I’m the only human and the change is small. I am not performing enterprise cosplay for a solo Tuesday.

What I’m not doing

I’m not open-sourcing every half-finished spike to look prolific.

I’m not treating GitHub stars as a KPI for the job hunt.

I’m not committing secrets because “I’ll scrub it later.” Backup first, then sanitize. We’ve covered that sermon.

I’m not confusing “it exists in a private repo” with “it is ready for a stranger.”

Why this belongs on Notes

Because “instruments, not vibes” only works if you can prove what changed yesterday. Version control is that proof.

Also because “do you GitHub?” from a hiring loop usually means “can you work in a shared history without chaos?” My answer is yes – with taste about what is public, what is private, and what has earned its own door.

If you want the pattern in one line: separate parking lots from product homes, keep humans on push, link only what you’d defend.

The lazy human dash in my drafts is a style choice – partly so I don’t get accused of being AI myself, and partly because I rarely feel like the effort an em dash demands. The commits, on the other hand, are a character choice.

~ Trish