I agree. I dipped both feet in those and other Java technologies and I really had trouble enjoying programming. It always felt like I was fighting with config

I agree. I dipped both feet in those and other Java technologies and I really had trouble enjoying programming. It always felt like I was fighting with configuration, JAR versions, and other useless complexity. I don't even want to think about all the dozens and dozens of hours I wasted fixing Maven problems. Now that functional languages are showing how easy it is to handle the increasing number of CPU cores, Java just looks like a dead end... except maybe for use as a Scala VM. But if you're going to move away from Java, it's also good to move away from the problems of the JVM. Personally, I've gone with Erlang/Elixir on the BEAM, giving me access to the brilliance that is the OTP.