ORMs can be nice if you're using the database for a single application in a very conventional CRUD pattern, but that's about it. And that's if you have the luxury of building a new DB to go with your new App. If you find yourself doing anything interesting (ie not just CRUDing single rows by ID) you should not only learn SQL, you really need to become familiar with databases. The promise of ORMs (at least when I first encountered them) was "you're not going to have to do SQL" but in reality, you will.