Learn to use the good standards and it will simply save your time. You won't "learn more" by not using the best tools there is, you'll simply learn the hard way... Which you shouldn't be doing if there's an easy way.

KISS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KISS_principle YAGNI: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YAGNI

By which I mean: always go with the easiest solution to your problem. Developers have a hard time doing that... I get you.