A few years after trying CSS Preprocessors for the first time (back then, the only one was SASS), I recently began using them again¹. It took me just a few hours to reach the same conclusions that Chris Coyer reached.

For a long time I thought: I write CSS everyday. I know CSS pretty well. My workflow is fine. I’m productive. Why does anything need to change?

The real answer is that nothing needs to change if you don’t want it to. If you’re perfectly happy doing what you are doing: godspeed.

I can tell you that after making the jump, I am actually more productive. And I write better CSS. And the projects I work on are in better, more maintainable shape because of it. And in some cases, faster.

Much like him, I’d advice to learn straight CSS before using any preprocessors.

I think understanding CSS is far more important than some specific preprocessor way of doing things. In fact, if a CSS newbie asked me if they should learn SASS as they are learning CSS, I’d probably say no. Learn how CSS works and then later see how preprocessors can help you.