I think his comment was quite appropriate, and did not feel there was an implication that he thought anyone was dumb for not having known about the alternative approach to getting Reddit data.

Often times programmers and the managers that drive them are way too quick to get going building or solving something with brute force. If they would just be patient and stop for a moment. Spending even a mere 30 minutes extra doing your homework on a problem can save hours or days in dev time.