The Problem with NPM

Whenever you run `npm install` it generates a local, project specific /node_modules/ directory with literally 10s of thousands of files and folders.

Why?! WHY?!

I understand that javascript is a simple scripting language, missing many features that are baked in to more traditional languages like PHP and friends.

I understand that many node modules are a work in progress, that are updated frequently.

I don’t understand the benefit off having these packages sitting inside each project directory.

I understand that disk space is cheap and it doesn’t really matter.