I'm trying to build something small with a quickly frozen feature set. I've chosen to build on a foundation that changes infrequently. There is more background at https://akkartik.name/freewheeling.
You're absolutely right that this approach doesn't apply to most programs people build today, with large teams and constantly mutating requirements.
I do still have source control. As I say in OP, I just stopped worrying about causing merge conflicts with other forks. (And I have over 2 dozen of them now; again, see the link above for details.) So I have version control for basic use cases like backups or "what did I just change?" or getting my software on new machines. I've just stopped thinking of version control, narrowly for this program, as a way to help _understand_ and track what changed. (More details on that: https://akkartik.name/post/wart-layers) One symptom of that, just as an example of what I mean: I care less about commit message hygiene. So version control still exists, but it's lower priority in my mind as a part of "good programming practice" for the narrow context of programs like this with frozen feature sets, intended to turn into durable artifacts that last decades.
You're absolutely right that this approach doesn't apply to most programs people build today, with large teams and constantly mutating requirements.
I do still have source control. As I say in OP, I just stopped worrying about causing merge conflicts with other forks. (And I have over 2 dozen of them now; again, see the link above for details.) So I have version control for basic use cases like backups or "what did I just change?" or getting my software on new machines. I've just stopped thinking of version control, narrowly for this program, as a way to help _understand_ and track what changed. (More details on that: https://akkartik.name/post/wart-layers) One symptom of that, just as an example of what I mean: I care less about commit message hygiene. So version control still exists, but it's lower priority in my mind as a part of "good programming practice" for the narrow context of programs like this with frozen feature sets, intended to turn into durable artifacts that last decades.