[ISeemToBeAVerb]

I'm pretty sure your question is squarely aimed at experienced developers, but I would like to offer a perspective from someone coming into web development from a completely different industry (film editing).

I decided to abandon my career as a film editor because I found my interests and ambitions leaning more toward interactive media and web development.

Having left editing at a time when video standards were all over the board (it wasn't uncommon to receive projects shot over 10 different formats), it wasn't all that surprising to see that web development is in a similar state of frenzy.

The sheer number of languages/frameworks/libraries/etc… is enough to make a person's head spin off. Honestly, being quite new, I don't fully understand how you experienced guys keep up. My own personal solution was to just choose a language (semi-arbitrarily) and dig in.

So my point in all this, from a purely newbie standpoint is that MY biggest frustration so far has been the sheer number of technologies to choose from.

I'm definitely not lost on the idea that this is a positive thing from the standpoint of innovation. Like most other industries, the REALLY good ideas tend to float to the top. But you asked for frustrating things, and navigating through all the different options has been MY most daunting challenge thus far from a technical standpoint.

[captainbeef]

Choosing something and digging in I think applies at all experience levels. The processing of choosing changes with experience.

[ISeemToBeAVerb]

I've noticed that. The more I get into web development and the more I learn, the better I am at recognizing the tools that apply to my needs. When you start fresh in any industry, the biggest challenge is trying to find the tools that best suit you. Sometimes those tools are not the ones that everyone is fawning over. I'm still new enough to not really know the subtle distinctions, but I agree that the more knowledgeable you become, the more critical you become of the tools you choose. I do feel that it's a difficult time for people coming into this industry with little background in programming, but at the same time I also recognize that the contributions of experienced programmers are making programming more assessable than it has ever been in the past. In some ways, that's a positive thing. At the same time it also means that so many people entering the field will never come to understand the core concepts that make programming an art.