In most fields good practioneers will use rules of thumb to simplify things and improve performance (ie Buffett's "be greedy when others are fearful"). In daytrading I noticed that most good daytraders avoid "chasing" a stock whether up or down. What about in options trading? What are some rules of thumb used by good options trading practioneers?
Most retail traders are making option decision based on their expectation of stock movement or expect lack of movement vs evaluating the options. In that case, the same standards should apply. If you need to get long or short, pick your spots. Then you also have to be aware of how and when option prices expand and contract during trading when stock prices vary.
My own: 1. I don't do anything unless it's supported by academic research. 2. Once I've found evidence that something works, I'll look hard for evidence that it DOESN'T. Does the strategy fail in other markets or in time periods I haven't considered? 3. If there's contradictory evidence, is it because a strategy doesn't work or because there are really two negatively correlated strategies involved - for example, momentum and value? Negatively correlated strategies are much better than having just one strategy or no strategy at all. It's worth taking the time to prove yourself wrong, if only for this reason.
Generally, I have positive theta, as selling options works very well. There are also options that are worth buying that don't suffer same kind of adverse decay as the options most of us are used to selling. It's also possible to construct a long volatility strategy using trend-following rules. Both of these are examples of negatively correlated strategies that make selling volatility much less risky.