I've become a huge fan of simple things. When I was just starting out developing software, I was a big fan of huge integrated solutions. But as the years went on I loved well scoped, lean options. This is the reason why I like Backbone.JS instead of Angular. The reason why I like Go instead of Java. Mithril looks really promising! Don't let feature creep turn it into a behemoth! Keep it lean and mean, and excel at th…
The cycle makes sense. A new programmer finds everything overwhelming, and the simplifications offered by something like Mithril often aren't enough to mitigate that feeling in any meaningful way. It's going to feel like you're drinking from a fire hydrant no matter what.
But as you get a much firmer grasp on the fundamentals, you also gain a much finer perception of bloat and cruft and what's necessary and what's not. So you feel a push to eliminate large all-encompassing libraries, because for the first time you realize that some sort of omniscience is within reach.