Isn't what you're describing essentially the ActiveRecord pattern? An object that has the internal capabilities to perform the various CRUD operations direct to

Isn't what you're describing essentially the ActiveRecord pattern? An object that has the internal capabilities to perform the various CRUD operations direct to a persistence store and only operates on itself? EDIT: Also, from an architectural standpoint, do you not think that having SQL-speaking objects written in this fashion is too tightly coupled? What do you think of a "Clean Architecture" implementation with respect to your idea?