Try Node, if you're into JS, gets you off pretty fast. When i first started learning Java EE (actual EE, not Spring), it did feel overwhelming. It is objective

Try Node, if you're into JS, gets you off pretty fast. When i first started learning Java EE (actual EE, not Spring), it did feel overwhelming. It is objectively complex. The learning curve is steep and intimidating, but so is anything else when you first start with it. What i later found out was that anxiety was all due to not knowing how the different parts tie together. In time, i got an idea of the purpose of the different APIs and how they are supposed to work together. This means that i didn't have to learn in details all aspects of the framework. You delve deep just in the part you need. And i just read the docs (official ones, not 3rd party books), skim through sections to get a feel for it. In time, it will all start making sense to you. When you get to actual work, you'll know where to dig in for the details. This worked out great for me when i started on Spring projects as well. And at the end, i found that that the most difficult part was to overcome the anxiety of it all... Will this approach work for you? Don't know, it's not a math formula.