Read what others are doing, especially if it seems everyone is doing something similar, but, and this is the vital part, apply critical thinking & specific knowledge of your use case. And keep an eye on new ideas that are less common, and keep in mind old ideas that are out of fashion, and apply said critical thinking to them also (or use them & lessons learned using them in the past to judge against the other/newer ideas). Basically: avoid being part of the cargo cult, except on those occasions where it actually finds the right direction.

Thank you, this is good advice.