So you know those puzzles where you need to figure out which end of which wire goes in what hole? I was getting annoyed at one, so I looked online to figure out what the logic to these puzzles were. I understand how to solve them now

what i am wondering is, does the game explain this at any point? Perhaps you find a file later on (i'm only on level 2) which explains how to solve these so you can backtrack and solve them later? Just hoping I didn't "spoil" anything for myself

No, there isn't.
You can use disposable logic probes to solve puzzles or you can apply a genius patch, but then you have to deal with side effects.

hmm ok, so players were just supposed to figure out on their own that the bar thing goes up when you have a wire in its correct orientation, regardless of placement

Yup. And most did, with minimal trouble. Remember that adventure games were still a major game genre at the time this was made, and even RPGs included a lot of puzzle elements -- most PC gamers were assumed to have encountered such puzzles before. And as Judicat0r noted, this game at least had a few ways around it; besides those he mentioned, one could also start the game with the puzzle difficulty set low, which I believe auto-solves them. Most other "puzzley" games back then weren't so kind (and the Internet wasn't what it is now). ; )