I wrote an ORM once, back in the mid-2000s. One of my principles was that when I know a damn good SQL query that will get me what I want, the ORM better not get

I wrote an ORM once, back in the mid-2000s. One of my principles was that when I know a damn good SQL query that will get me what I want, the ORM better not get in the way. The result? My query generating classes would happily take in individual parts of an SQL statement, or a whole query, handle it through the same database abstractions as a generated one, and give me back workable objects as best as possible. This came as a result of seeing what miserable performance I got handling joins as application logic, recursing through things one at a time when the correct query would bring me back every piece of information I needed at once. I still use some of that old code from time to time, mostly because I miss how well it meshed with the way I think about things. Sometimes writing your own, if you've got the time, is a nice way to become truly productive and comfortable.