Git rebase can cut that cost—if you use it to reduce cognitive load. Cognitive load reduction means shrinking the mental overhead required to understand, review, and merge code. In version control, every extra branch divergence, every noisy commit history, increases mental strain. Rebase is the scalpel that trims this chaos.
When you rebase a feature branch onto the latest main, you rewrite commits so they sit cleanly on top of the updated base. Instead of merge commits dumping multiple histories together, you have a linear path. Linear history is easier to read, easier to debug, and faster to review. Each commit stays focused on its change. You see a clear storyline from base to tip without scanning through irrelevant merge noise.
This is where cognitive load drops. Once history is linear, the scope of what you need to track shrinks. You no longer juggle mental maps of multiple branch states. You just read top-down commit logs. Bug hunts speed up. Code reviews stay lean. Onboarding new developers becomes frictionless because the repo’s history tells a straight story.