I agree with both late2part and you. I saw late2part situation happen a lot of times: A junior dev find a quick an elegant way to solve problem X. Senior dev c

I agree with both late2part and you. I saw late2part situation happen a lot of times: A junior dev find a quick an elegant way to solve problem X. Senior dev comes and say: It's good but you should do it that way because it <will be more testable / require less maintenance / any advice only someone with more experience on the product's codebase can tell> If the senior dev is bad / doesn't have time at the moment, he will skip explaining the "because" part, and the junior dev might be frustrated. With good communication a good faith from both parties, the junior would later understand. The manager anecdote "my boss made the wrong decision, without being able to explain why his decision was better." would be a different situation, and in that case, that manager should definitely have kept his opinion for himself. At least he recognized his mistake later on. So 2 stories: One where the junior dev is too "know-it-all", one where the supervisor didn't put enough trust in his subordinates.