Sometimes I feel like software engineers are a bit culty and puritanical. So many times I go to stackoverflow and someone has asked "how do I do X with Y" and the replies are standard dictums like "you should never (in bold!) do X with Y" or "why are you doing X yourself? use this or that library". In the workplace it's often a good idea not to keep reinventing the wheel, but outside of that learning by experimentation shouldn't be discouraged.

@dpiponi It's about standards. That's why we are called software engineers. We may sound a bit patronising, but we deal every day with colleagues that write too clever software that does not follow the standards and after some time all the layers of crap fall on our heads. At which point we need to shovel that crap away while the guy who did this left already enjoying his new job at Bloomberg where he will help piling more crap on their premises. Try listening to the guys. maybe their manners are not great but they are probably sparing you a lot of issues in the medium long term.