Please clarify something for me;

I was told exactly the opposite as far as needle settings were concerned.

I was told that you should avoid running it rich at all costs as that is when it tended to pre-detonate and kick. I thought that was the idea behind starting to spin it over with the throttle completely closed or getting it to spin over and clear the cylinder before the heat was applied to the glow plug.

If I read the above correctly, exactly the opposite is true and we should error on the rich side? Which is correct? Is lean hell, or does running it rich cause it to kick?