🚀 The Simple Version
Git is a save-point system for your code — like a video game that lets you go back to any earlier save. GitHub is just a website that stores those save points online so other people (and other computers) can see them.
The Three Commands You Actually Use
git add .— "pack these changes into a box, ready to save"git commit -m "message"— "actually save the box, with a note about what's in it"git push— "upload my saved boxes to GitHub"
That's 90% of what you'll do day to day. Everything else is extra.
What a Branch Actually Is
Imagine copying your whole project folder, renaming it "experiment", and messing around in there without touching the original. A branch is that, but Git manages the copying for you so it doesn't waste space. When your experiment works, you merge it back into the main folder.
Why Pull Requests Exist
A Pull Request (PR) is just you saying "hey, I made these changes on my branch, can someone check them before they go into the main project?" It's a conversation, not a magic button — that's why real PRs have comments, questions, and sometimes a few rounds of "please fix this line."
The One Habit Worth Building Now
Commit often, with messages that describe why you made a change, not just what changed. "fixed bug" tells nobody anything. "fix: cart total didn't update after removing an item" tells a future you (or a recruiter looking at your GitHub) exactly what happened.