I too was a crotchety old, "get of my javascript lawn", type guy. I thought coffeescript was for lazy developers who just didn't want to write good javascript. Then I decided to use it when I was evaluating a framework, because that framework had chosen to dive fully into coffeescript. All of their examples were cs, so I figured, "what the heck." Even though I didn't stay with that framework, I am so glad I gave cs a try. It has been a huge blessing in rapid development. Having used it for five weeks now, I can definitely sing it's praises. You still need to have a good understanding of javascript, and there are obviously a few gotchas, but it has really changed my who coding experience. I'm in the minority in my office, in that I actually love javascript, but for those who hate it with a passion, introducing them to coffeescript has gotten them on the js train.