...knowing the datasheet isn't enough. If you go into a shop in India and want to buy a green SMD-LED, do you know what type and brand you get? And even if you know it's a KP3216 from Kingbright, do you know whether it's the KP3216CGCK or KP3216ZGC?

Even here in Germany you don't know what you actually get if you order a green SMD-LED from a catalog selling, even if it's listed as KP3216 from Kingbright.

But it's even a lot more than knowing the datasheet and getting the proper SMD-LED: You must know everything arround this darn SMD-LED, issues not necessarily discussed in the datasheet or even existing discussions but not seeming to be important or relevant. You just need knowledge and experience!

A newbie must start somewhere. So, telling him to look into a datasheet isn't enough. Let's tell him: Make yourself strong by learning and doing. Use any source you can get, and do also (and preferred) read datasheets.

My knowledge on LEDs is based on a special edition of "Funkschau" from 1984, a time, when the blue LED wasn't already invented, but they even knew the material it would be made from one fine day.
Not so easy to get really good basics on electronic components in the google century. In books I have knowledge from experts I have never seen in the web. Billions of websites how to comb your dog's hair, to fix your car, to marry when you are gay,... But real experts stuff on electronic components is rather rare.

Kai