> ...in order to use ORMs effectively, you still need to know SQL. My contention with ORMs is that, if you need to know SQL, just use SQL since it prevents the

> ...in order to use ORMs effectively, you still need to know SQL. My contention with ORMs is that, if you need to know SQL, just use SQL since it prevents the need to know how non-SQL gets translated to SQL. This is presuming that you will never come across ORM being used almost exclusively in any future projects. After all, ORM doesn't seem to be going anywhere (even with all the hate against it). One could make an argument that learning both effectively would provide a better general foundation.