trial and error=experience
beforehand research=logic
Is it this way?The way they keep fish here is more to experience than logic,my dad believe parrots are a mix of goldfish and a cichlid which i told him was untrue,he uses chlorinated water for a fish in trouble,most likely the fish died,lfs don't check the ph and they don't even know what it is but it is business as usual and fish usually die from disease.
IMHO, you can't have good logic in this hobby without some sort of experience/knowledge. If you learn false information in the beginning, logically any logic you derive from that false information will be false.
It's about personalities, not fishkeeping. Some people prefer to go by intuition (based on experience), others prefer to reason it through (logic).
IME ( ) I suggest a blend of both.
As an example, I didn't used to dechlorinate. I'd never had a problem, so my experience told me it wasn't necessary. However, I have since been in receipt of factual information implying that should chloramines start to be used, my experience would not be relevant. So I changed my practice.