One must constantly be exploring the literature back and forth and in many fields, always looking for new clues and new voices. One must write and summarize so as too indicate one's views and where they fit in with what has gone on before. In too many fields, the connectivity in any subject with what went before is not clearly indicated. However, hundreds of review references do not substitute for evolution of the main chain of ideas. The exposure to so many other ideas should not influence your own critical judgment of what is good and bad, and how things are to be weighed.
Science proceeds in time by an alternation of theory and experiment.
Don't be afraid to use both. If you want to be an interdisciplinary scientist, you must be willing to learn and master the other person's tools and language. Obviously, most scientists shy away from mathematics and other highly abstract subjects. On the other hand, the more abstract scientists tend to shy away from what they consider the imprecise 'jargonese' and quantity of detail in the more 'practical' sciences. A scientist concerned with truth can afford neither luxury.