[tchaffee]

I guess it depends on what you mean by productive. I completed the React official tutorial in less than an hour and started writing a simple app, which then grew to a more complex app. Component lifecycle was trivial to me. There are only five or six lifecycle hooks. I was answering React Stackoverflow questions within a few weeks of starting.

Does React have some gotchas? Yes, but most of the time devs who get caught by those simply haven't read the very short and very good docs.

I've used loads of frameworks in my long programming career and React has been one of the easiest to pick up. Agreed that Angular is a bit of a nightmare. I studied that for months and still feel like a beginner even after building a side project with it.