While some of this is spot on, there's seems to be two threads to this that make less sense to me. First, "building small things" isn't what many of us do from

While some of this is spot on, there's seems to be two threads to this that make less sense to me. First, "building small things" isn't what many of us do from day to day. I don't think many of us sit down and try to create bloated, overly complex systems, but oversimplification isn't helpful either. If you're wild-westing it or reinventing wheels for your next web project, I can't help but think you've only got serious pain in your (near) future. I think there's an important difference between complex and complicated. I wonder if you asked Neil about his set if he'd describe it more as an organized toolset that's evolved over time or a sprawling mess of a ball-and-chain he's involuntarily tied to. I'm no fan of the verbose, Java-like implementations (ZF and SF, I'm looking at you) you've highlighted, but there are more options out there. Secondly, I take issue with the abrasive tenor a lot of these posts seem to take. All critique and no solutions, especially no code to show for great ideas. While a good F@$* that S@#% helps everyone see the problem, the lack of action or offering of concrete ideas for improvement leaves me with the feeling that it's just complaining. I wish more of the leadership in this community was contributing in an open-source, here's-the-code sort of way. At least contributing as much as they critique.