The Power of the Gist

I save a lot of stuff that helps me out with my work day to day, whether it be lists of things or maybe some IDs for something I need later, or SQL queries that I know I'll most likely need again in future... lots of stuff! Some of these things I save on my Mac, using TextEdit or Notes (really I should just use one, but never-mind). For SQL queries and code snippets, I prefer to store them on Github Gists.

I don't actually know too many people that use Gists, but they are an extremely useful part of Github. You can create public or secret Gists, just like a repository. In-fact, a Gist is a repository as it can be cloned or forked too!

You can add as many files as you want, and is a super easy way of sharing code snippets with a colleague. I've been using them for around 3-4 years now and I sometimes refer back to code I saved in a Gist years ago, rather than re-writing what I know I've already wrote.

I often use Gists on calls I'm on to quickly write small bits of annotated code, that I can then refer back to later if I need to and also share it with those I was on the call with to get their feedback.

It is worth pointing out that a "Secret" gist is only secret in that it's not searchable on Github. If someone happens to guess the URL, then they will be able to see the contents so it's probably best you don't use it to store passwords in!