In the end it is about knowledge sharing. You either tell someone that he might be headed in the wrong direction (he doesn't need to listen to you though) or yo

In the end it is about knowledge sharing. You either tell someone that he might be headed in the wrong direction (he doesn't need to listen to you though) or you don't. If you tell him, he has more information on which he can base his decision. If you don't, you deprive him of the chance. I agree however that the decision is up to each individual. There is also another view - I think it is good to let developers influence the decisions about technology used, but only up to a point. In the end it will be leader's problem if technology that some novice developer wanted to use fails to deliver (as it so happens). EDIT: I do agree with you that developers need to own up to their challenges though. :)