This all depends on your goals and what you're trying to accomplish whether it's preparing for competition or overall fitness. Resting can also mean a lot of things; are you sitting down? Are you walking around after a set? Are you active at a lower intensity? Or are you just going non stop?
In my opinion, you should rest as long as needed, not as long or short as someone tells you to. I've been through the 30 seconds rest periods, 2 min., 5 min., 15 sec. and so on and so forth and I have come to the conclusion that if you need to catch your breath then do so and take as much time as you need. When it comes to conditioning, the objective is to keep going and if you're in need of a rest or finished say a circuit, do a lower intensity exercise that is active and keeps you at a solid level of cardio. If you've been hitting it hard with the weights or you have done some rough HIIT than I suggest you rest as long as needed to.
Rest periods for the most part written out by various trainers and fitness enthusiasts make mere suggestions and some are very questionable especially those that have you doing some heavy training but your rest time is way short. I get it, you want them to keep their heart rates at a high level but suggesting a rest period when someone isn't in the shape for that workout and telling them if they're weak or not for how long they rest is ridiculous. I have been through some of the most intense training around and some that are considered beginner, I barely made it and i'm in good shape.
This is where it can be debatable for people and depending where the training is from and who teaches it can be overwhelming. When you're following someone at their pace, at times you won't be able to keep up, doesn't mean you're not in shape, just means you're not meant to. When it comes to programs like DDP Yoga, the objective is to keep going but he does remind you if you need to back off a bit then do so because if you're going harder than you need to, it can cause injury.
You want to be able to recover at an optimum level for you and how do you know if you're resting enough? Is your form at a solid level when you move onto the next exercise or set or is it sloppy? Are you able to go at the pace you've progressed or are you going slower? How are your energy levels? These are the things many don't think about and the reason why that is it's because they were told to only do this and that. The key to learning this is being able to be intuitive and understanding your awareness and the ability to go at a level needed to progress to a greater stage or efficiently in another exercise or set.
I firmly believe in resting until I'm ready for the next set. I've been experimenting with skipping rope or the airope lately where if I get too tired during certain rounds of the animal dice game or I used it as rest between each exercise from the recent Cable workout, I skipped enough to let things go down a bit but at the same time i'm staying active. I rest only enough to where my breathing is good and the lactic acid has died down a bit for me to go hard again. So far this has been working extremely well for me and I have stayed on active rest sometimes shorter to catch my breath and sometimes a little longer to be at a good pace so when I go back, i'm efficient.
Resting is just another word for recovery and if you're able to go through an entire workout without needing recovery time, that's awesome and impressive but if you need to catch your breath and need to move around a bit and recover than do so, don't be afraid to recover. Recovery is just as important as the training itself and if it's not on a balanced level (which can vary an individual) than you need to make it so. Have a foundational ratio and you'll be reaching levels of fitness that are just awesome.
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