[inimino]

The best thing to remember is that if you're doing it for fun and learning, you don't need anything but a plain old HTML5 and a plain old script tag. Once you feel you need something more than that for a particular project (or for work) you'll be better able to evaluate what's out there.

  <script>
  // get started!
  </script>

[irrational]

This. Someone starting out should not be using webpack, react, jquery, lodash, etc. etc. etc. You need to first learn vanilla javascript which requires nothing more than a browser and a text editor.

[pauly]

even simpler open your browser console and just start typing, I've found new ideas by letting the autocomplete there guide me