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I don't know.

Hand-written SQL means a bunch of work and you have to know SQL. But it is simple and transparent.

ORMs automate a lot of simple and repetitive SQL, but to use them effectively you really have to know SQL extremely well and understand the ORM deeply as well.

So I guess it depends on what you are doing. ORMs can be useful but they require a lot more knowledge to use effectively than hand-coded SQL does.

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> ORMs automate a lot of simple and repetitive SQL, but to use them effectively you really have to know SQL extremely well and understand the ORM deeply as well.

I'm not sure. You need to know the relational model pretty well, but you don't have to remember the zillions of quirks and edge cases or differences between dialects that SQL has. IME that's what takes most of the memorization effort.

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