I use ORMs (ActiveRecord in Ruby, Sequelize in node.js) but I strongly believe that the only way to correctly use an ORM is to have a strong understanding of SQ

I use ORMs (ActiveRecord in Ruby, Sequelize in node.js) but I strongly believe that the only way to correctly use an ORM is to have a strong understanding of SQL. The ORM is useful in that it makes some things faster to write, makes my code cleaner but I will often revert back to SQL for critical operations that I need to be fast and I also know enough about how the ORM writes SQL to make sure that it doesn't do stupid queries. TLDR: ORMs are a good tool but must never be used to avoid learning SQL. An SQL knowledge is necessary to not shoot yourself in the foot.