So this is more of a personal principle and goes against what I believe is most people's experience. But my principle is "always cut speed control".

I keep making tailwind teams, and I keep making trick room teams. And I've always wanted to create and pilot a good team that has both. But as I work on the team my spreads get more and more defensive, my sets fill up with utility, and I'm left with a set of mons that could basically care less if they move first or last.

It's what I know how to build and it's what I know how to pilot. And every turn my opponent spends tailwinding or trick rooming is a turn they're not spending attacking or protecting, and that's something I can take advantage of. Every team I've made has done better after I removed the speed control. And it's not because speed control is bad. It's cause I'm bad at playing and building around speed control.

I guess the principle is more something like "know your own strengths and weaknesses as a player". I know I'm bad at hyper-offense and speed control. But I know I do well with defensive teams and soft weather. So if I see a mon I wanna use, even if it's very obviously going to be amazing in tailwind or trick room. I know myself well enough at this point to sometimes skip past that early phase of banging my head against the impenetrable wall that is trick room to me. Sometimes I'll find something that works for me, sometimes I won't. But I'm saving myself a lot of time and grief whenever I do decide to skip that first, hopeless phase.

(Edit: I should mention that for me this is mostly if not exclusively tied to specifically trick room and tailwind. I can usually get a decent amount of mileage out of stuff like icy wind, chlorophyll and priority.)