Is there a trick to not overthinking the chip color? In my experience, I was taught the same thing, but I always second guess myself and end up with a cut that's either too aggressive or too light. My old boss would shake his head at me because I'd stare at those chips like they were tea leaves. It took me forever to connect the chip shape to the sound of the cut, and even now I mix it up. That hands on knowledge just sticks with you differently than programming a machine. I guess some of us are just better at reading manuals than reading chips.
In our training class at the tech college, the instructor made us wear earplugs and then try to judge the cut by chip shape alone. It showed how much we rely on sound and how that can mess with reading chips visually. I found that when I blocked out the noise, I started to see the chip color and shape more clearly without second guessing. Now, I sometimes mute other senses briefly to focus on one cue at a time. It's a weird trick, but it helps bridge that gap between hands on feel and machine feedback.