I am new as well. I think the folklore aspect is not because the established people in the field are bad teachers, but because even they don't have much rationa

I am new as well. I think the folklore aspect is not because the established people in the field are bad teachers, but because even they don't have much rationale besides "this is what seems to work". It's a new field, that's fine. Innovations are still as simple as "Oh we used a cyclical learning rate instead of constant" and boom.