title: Why would I want to use jQuery?
body: <p>(I understand that someone else asked a similar question and it was closed as 'argumentative', but I'm really interested in understanding the arguments around this.)</p>
  
  <p>I know JavaScript really well. I've been writing it professionally for years. I've internalized a lot of the cross-browser incompatibilities and sketchiness, know DOM manipulation like the back of my hand, have worked with some of the best web developers in the industry &amp; picked up a lot of their mojo. </p>
  
  <p>I've been checking out jQuery. I understand the point of a javascript library (how many times have I written animation, getElementsByClass, and hide/show functions?). But to be honest, it seems like a waste of time to learn an entirely new syntax that isn't less complex. It seems like I'd be bashing my head against a wall to learn an entirely new interface to the same old JavaScript.</p>
  
  <p>I'm not technically an engineer, so maybe I'm missing something. Could someone spell out the tradeoffs of jQuery? Is it really faster to learn and understand jQuery syntax than to just learn JavaScript?</p>