By early 2016 developers were talking about “JavaScript fatigue”—the feeling of exhaustion caused by the rapid release cycle of frameworks, build tools, and best‑practice articles. The term spread after essays and discussions on Medium, Hacker News, and conference talks that asked whether anyone could keep up with the pace.

Why fatigue set in

• Tooling stacks grew from jQuery + script tags to complex pipelines involving Babel, Webpack, ESLint, Karma, and more.
• Framework churn: Angular → React → Vue → Redux → MobX, each marketed as a must‑know skill.
• Social pressure: blog posts, meet‑ups, and job ads spotlighting the “next big thing.”

Signs you might feel it

• Tutorials abandon last month’s setup for a new boilerplate.
• Time spent configuring build scripts outweighs time spent writing features.
• Fear of missing out when a new RFC hits Twitter.

Five steps to stay sane

1. Focus on fundamentals
   Vanilla JS, the DOM, CSS, HTTP, and accessibility outlive tooling waves.

2. Set learning goals
   Pick one stack per project and finish the project before evaluating alternatives.

3. Use stable presets

   • create-react-app for React
   • @angular/cli for Angular
   • vite for Vue or vanilla apps
     These hide most build config so you code, not babysit Webpack.

4. Batch your exploration
   Schedule a weekly hour to read release notes or watch talks, instead of chasing Twitter all day.

5. Prune dependencies
   Review your package.json quarterly; remove libs that modern browsers now cover.

Choosing tools that fit

Ask three questions before adopting anything new:

• Does it solve a pain I have today?
• Will it be maintained at least as long as I maintain my code?
• Can my team learn it without stalling delivery?

If the answer is “maybe,” defer. Proven tech ages well, hype fades.

Looking ahead

Framework velocity is unlikely to slow down. What changes is your filter:

• Track stable references like MDN, Can I use, and the official docs of your chosen framework.
• Follow curated newsletters instead of raw feeds.
• Keep pet projects small for experimentation; keep production stacks boring.