[daxfohl]

I recommend learning it. I never did and I think it stunted me. The few times I did need to go deep with something, it was actually quite intuitive, interesting, and powerful. But I think I ended up spending so much time working around things just because I didn't know what I was doing, that it would have been more efficient just to sit down and learn it at the beginning.

Try to get the preconception that it's boring grunt work out of your head and just dedicate some time to learn it. You'll be much happier later.

Do start with a framework though.