Stick to the Good Parts

The book JavaScript: The Good Parts demonstrates that you might be better off sticking to a well-chosen subset of your language rather than using all of it. Some features are more trouble than they're worth. When I learn a new language, I evaluate whether a particular feature is worth using, and if not, I just ignore it for the purpose of writing in that language. This is particularly important strategy for writing in bloated languages, like VB and C++.