i asked myself the same 2 years ago when my team was deciding if we need all of that javascript framework madness. In the end we built whole product based on dartlang (http://www.dartlang.org) which compiles down to javascript. We used only Dart language and no frameworks and best thing that came out of this is that we don't feel bound by restrictions of some framework but add stuff as we feel like. What we did is email marketing app https://www.listshine.com, something like mailchimp but faster and with less clutter.
Crm - streak crm (http://www.streak.crm), nice crm that integrates with gmail. Used to categorize email communication.
Email marketing - listshine (http://www.listshine.com) cheap alternative to mailchimp, used to regularly email new and existing customers.
what we do at listshine is run code on dartium in checked mode. when it works 100% then we build js version in staging and after that is confirmed to work then we do production build.
debugging dart code is faster and better in dartium
What i personally liked is that we write once and in 99.9% cases generated js is compatible with all browsers. Also type checking and strong analyzer mode helped catch ton of bugs. Im sure if you bet your next project on this tech you wont be sorry. Fast code and fast development with webdev batteries included.
We are writing spa frontend for email marketing service in dart. No angular, react, just lots of plain dart. Strong analyzer mode is used and dartium is always in checked mode. Dart shined most when we created drag and drop html editor. We like using it anl if anyone wants to know why we used dart ask for details.
Check our app at listshine.com
If you want to learn how to get more performance out of your event/thread driven code, go with golang, it has improved how i write my code in python. I think more and more people are going to use golang in the long run. If you want to learn something different go with haskell.
hey, i noticed this on HN so just to share my thoughts. How about incorporating it a bit more simple, just pushing commands with some checks like these guys do? It is a bit more low-level but automation comes only once and should be easier to change. Here is video from their site http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBQAhsDeM-s