[seanmccann]

Use what you know, but that said, some tools can produce a better product, faster.

Building products is a marathon so you might as well learn Rails. Purchase some begineer screencasts and don't worry (right now) about anything advanced like testing. Forget about haml and sass initially. Just learn Ruby and Rails. A solid understanding of Ruby is very important.

Rails, like anything, takes much longer than 12 hours to learn. Familiarity with CodeIgnighter can reduce the initial Rails learning curve.

[FameofLight]

Yes reducing the dependence on plugin / library and following upon learning as I am building is my motto. Sticking to rails.

[seanmccann]

Over time there are plenty of gems that can save a significant amount of time. Struggle first, learn, and then start using some of the gems in the future.