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Add LEARNINGS.md — course reflection #1

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# What I Learned

A short reflection after going through *The Basics of GitHub*.

## What I learned

- **Git vs. GitHub.** Git is the distributed version control system that lives on
your machine. GitHub is the hosting platform and web UI built around it.
- **The GitHub flow.** Branch off `main`, commit work locally, push the branch,
open a pull request for review, then merge once it's approved.
- **Repositories** are project folders with full history. A good `README.md`
tells visitors what the project is, why it exists, and how to use it.
- **Branches** isolate in-progress work so `main` stays releasable.
- **Forks** are server-side copies for contributing to repos you don't own —
the standard entry point for open source.
- **Pull requests** are the conversation around a diff, not just a merge button.
- **Issues** track work — bugs, tasks, ideas — and can be linked to PRs so they
auto-close on merge.
- **Markdown** is the lingua franca of GitHub: READMEs, issues, PRs, comments.
- **Community signals** — stars, follows, Explore — surface projects worth
paying attention to.

## What's still a bit fuzzy

- When to **rebase** vs. **merge** when bringing `main` into a feature branch.
- How **protected branches** and required reviews are configured in practice.
- Resolving **merge conflicts** confidently in a real PR (not a toy example).
- **Forks vs. branches** for collaboration — when each is the right tool.
- How **GitHub Actions** plug into the PR lifecycle (checks, required statuses).

## Resources I want to come back to

- [GitHub flow guide](https://guides.github.com/introduction/flow/)
- [About branches](https://docs.github.com/en/github/collaborating-with-issues-and-pull-requests/about-branches)
- [About pull requests](https://docs.github.com/en/github/collaborating-with-issues-and-pull-requests/about-pull-requests)
- [Mastering Markdown](https://guides.github.com/features/mastering-markdown/)