Not wanting to put in the effort to learn the basics of SVG, CSS and the D3 API, and yet expecting hand-holding and everything to just be easy Sadly, this prob

Not wanting to put in the effort to learn the basics of SVG, CSS and the D3 API, and yet expecting hand-holding and everything to just be easy Sadly, this problem has become endemic within the web development community in recent years. People are more concerned with learning the latest buzzword framework than the fundamentals. The article itself quotes this tweet early on: The trouble with D3 is to build a visualization you must also have a deep understanding of SVG, DOM, JavaScript, geometry, color spaces, data structures, the standard model, and quantum physics — @seecmb Well, yes. Designing and implementing good visualisations is a skill. It has many aspects, and they aren't trivial. If you want to draw a standard, no-frills, minimally-customised chart then there are many higher-level libraries that will draw one for you and you're not the target audience for D3. If you want to have more customised and creative visualisations and interactions, you have to customise and create. That requires understanding the tools available and knowing what you're trying to achieve with them, but if you are willing to put the work in to reach that point, D3 offers a useful and powerful toolbox.