If you don't understand git, then don't mess around with 'rebase', 'push -f', or any other command that tries to edit history. These commands assume that you have a strong mental model of how git works, and this is how the author of the article got into trouble.

It's possible to build a very successful git workflow using only the following commands:

    git clone git:...
    git add path/to/new_file
    git commit -a
    git pull
    git push

(Yes, commit before pulling, rather than vice versa.)

If you want to use branches, you need to add:

    # Showing branches.
    git branch -a
    gitk --all

    # Checking out branches.
    git checkout some_branch

    # Creating and pushing a new branch.
    git checkout -b new_branch_name
    git push -u origin new_branch_name

    # Checking out an existing branch.    
    git checkout -b some_branch origin/some_branch

    # Merging a branch into your current branch.
    git pull origin some_branch

This workflow is extremely safe. At worst, you might need to resolve a merge conflict.

But if you start digging around under the hood, and you start editing your commit history, you'd better be prepared to understand what you're trying to do.