While we all wish there was a standard few polished tools that did everything we needed and had good documentation and testing tools, I think the reality is tha

While we all wish there was a standard few polished tools that did everything we needed and had good documentation and testing tools, I think the reality is that what we want to do and are capable of doing using javascript is evolving so fast that the perceived chaos is inevitable. So you have to choose, what are you trying to do and why? I think if you are a professional, you should specialize. Make a choice and stick with whatever you choose, at least for a little while. You don't need to know everything. Maybe you don't need to know the front end at all. The whole "full stack engineer" idea is nice, but I'd rather have someone who specialized in the front end working on my site than someone who has tacked it on to a bevy of other skills and is just trying to hang on. If you are a professional web developer, then learn the tools you need, keep everything as updated as possible, and try to learn one other thing that is up and coming. Don't wait to let the updates and releases pile up before you upgrade, stay on top of it, read the blogs, update your code. But don't worry about knowing all the frameworks. If you are going to be working in React for a few years, it'll be worth the struggle with the current project you're working on. You don't need to know Angular, React, and Ember, just pick one. Learn another one when your job requires it, or mess around with it on the side. If you are a professional web developer and have not kept up, and need to know the new hotness, I recommend Ember. They are always absorbing the best features of other frameworks (they now render the DOM like React does), have developed a pretty good update process that helps you transition, and have middling good documentation. They try to keep things simple. It seems a lot less fragmented than React. If you need to build websites, but it isn't your only job, you don't need to know a javascript framework. JS frameworks are awesome and I love them, but for 90% of stuff you are almost just as good without them and for the other 10% you still don't need them. Learn Ruby on Rails. It's been around forever, has great documentation, has everything you need from start to finish, and if you want to dip your toes in a JS framework, you can put that on top of your Rails project no problem. If you don't need to know this stuff for work and are just trying to keep up with the field, just keep in mind that everything you learn will be obsolete in 3 years. Hopefully you are enjoying the process, because you'll do it again soon.