Awesome article. I know its a few years old, but I admit that sometimes I get a little too excited by technical things like films, papers, film/paper developers, lenses, etc... While all important, I'm trying to focus more on aesthetics while staying consistent (not trying to do anything crazy, just what I know works) in the technical area.
However all the experimenting I have done with various paper developers (not so much film developers yet), toners, lenses, etc... has helped me plan out how I want to photograph something. Basically I'll visualize a print and think, "What can I do to achieve this" and using my knowledge will help me, but not be the end all. I still have to make a correct exposure, develop correctly, and print with the right amount of Magenta (I use a color head to print B/W)
In my humble opinion the best way to go about experimenting is to go about your business photographing/developing/printing as you "normally" would, but change one variable and work with that, carefully documenting along the way. For example I used a red filter on my Grandagon-N 90mm for the first time last week, I wrote down all of the corrected exposures. I also made an exposure without the lens for each negative so I could literally see the effects it had. For some this may be a waste of time, but for me it helps. Like the article said, it's one thing to know how a house is made, but completely different to do it yourself.
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