You may not realize it, but frameworks and libraries are your enemy. Write something with minimal dependencies. Take a language you already know and think of a

You may not realize it, but frameworks and libraries are your enemy. Write something with minimal dependencies. Take a language you already know and think of a simple, fun thing to make from scratch (for an arbitrary definition of 'from scratch'). You rightfully complained about the complexity of JavaScript or C++, but you don't have to use the majority of the features. With minimal external dependencies and no other programmers in the mix, you can choose a subset of the language and just stick with that. It sounds like C/C++ would be a good fit if doing low level things is fun for you. Javascript/HTML/Canvas is also not a bad choice per se, you just don't need externalities such as bundlers, wasmers, deployers, dependency managers. Whichever environment you decide to go with, start with an empty directory. NO package managers, either. If you absolutely must use an external library, copy it in deliberately and manually. See how few things you actually need to make something fun and worthwhile!