[sanxchit]

Having worked with databases for a while, SQL seems to be useful because it forces you to think about how your data is structured. To me SQL is a thin wrapper around the relational algebra notation. The biggest problem I run into with SQL is that it is hard to tell how performant a complex query is before actually running it.

[danisth]

Not a great interface, but estimated query plans can be pretty useful for getting a feel for how heavy a query will be.