Haste makes waste. You can only make a comparison of speed if you compare developers on the basis of equal robustness, efficiency, reusability, etc. Once you

Haste makes waste. You can only make a comparison of speed if you compare developers on the basis of equal robustness, efficiency, reusability, etc. Once you get on top of the learning curve with any given set of tools, libraries, etc - you would expect to become progressively quicker. But as you have experienced, the learning part can take a lot of time. Assuming that your eventual solution is better (on whatever criteria are important to the given project) than the quicker alternatives then the learning was worth it.