Leaders are different from bosses. Leaders inspire and motivate people to achieve an objective. A boss is not capable of creating an identity between the people and the goal. Forcing his subordinates to exhale their motivation to conclude his own objectives. Leaders act in a way that there are no “subordinates”.
Bosses love to give their opinions about technical issues, usually unsubstantiated, simply opinions. Everybody has opinions (at least they should), people need something useful, bring data, what you “think” is usually a waste of time. The worst part is that it looks like a snowball, each boss works to fill their bosses spreadsheet with green items. Cascading through the hierarch until it hits someone who really knows how to do the job.
It’s impressive how motivated and interested you can be when you actually admire your leaders. When you care about what they say, because they usually know what they’re saying. And even more important, they are humble enough to recognize when they don’t. And there are a handful of people here which I’d consider as good leaders.
Okay, now I’m reeeeeally far away from a technical topic, so here is what I consider the best git intro ever, by Scott Chacon:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDR433b0HJY
I lost track of how many times I already watched it. Seriously, please let me know if you find a better one.