Hey,
Welcome to this week’s Experiments in Progress issue.
This one is about trust: who we trust, what we trust, and how hard that’s become when money, incentives, and platforms are involved in almost every decision.
In this issue:
🧠 What I trust (and don’t) before I buy anything: how I filter reviews, rankings, and recommendations to avoid buying the wrong thing
🎙️ A new podcast episode about an uncomfortable situation with an affiliate platform and the line I won’t cross again
Let’s dive in👇
⚠️ What I Trust (and Don’t) Before I Buy Anything
These days, the hardest part of buying something isn’t choosing the product but it’s deciding who to trust before you buy it.
Reviews can be fake.
Rankings can be paid for.
Views can be manufactured.
So I’ve had to get a lot more deliberate about where I take advice from just to avoid ending up with something that looks great online and disappoints in real life.
Here’s the system I use to make sure I don’t buy the wrong thing:
❌ What I Don’t Fully Trust Anymore
“Best X” blog posts
Most of these are affiliate machines.
The #1 pick is often just the product paying the highest commission.
That doesn’t mean the product is bad. It just means the ranking is meaningless.
High-view YouTube reviews
Views don’t equal trust anymore.
Views can be bought. Momentum can be manufactured.
Even well-intentioned creators are often working under sponsorship constraints.
A popular video tells you what performed, not what actually held up.
Comparison sites with rankings
Any site that confidently tells you “this is the best option” without context is a red flag.
Real decisions are messier than that.
📸 Image: blurred star ratings / generic comparison charts
✅ What I Still Use (Carefully)
YouTube for long-term signals
I look for creators who’ve lived with a product for months.
Not first impressions. Not launch week hype.
I pay attention to what keeps showing up in their setup and what quietly disappears.
Reddit for patterns over opinions
Individual comments don’t matter much. Patterns do.
If hundreds of real users keep flagging the same issue, I take that seriously.
Reddit isn’t perfect, but it’s still one of the least polished places online.
Price trackers (not discounts)
I don’t trust “deals.” I trust history.
Price trackers tell you whether something is actually cheaper or just pretending to be.
Before buying, I’ll usually look at Amazon price trackers (CamelCamelCamel and Keepa) to see whether the price has actually gone up or down recently especially around things like Black Friday.
Once I’m comfortable with the price, I’ll then check cashback sites like TopCashback and Quidco. Not to justify the purchase but to reduce the cost on something I was already going to buy anyway.
🧠 The 5 Rules I Check Before I Hit Buy
Once something gets through the noise, it has to survive these:
1️⃣ Quality over price (usually)
I’ll pay more for things I use every day — especially if failure would be annoying.
2️⃣ Cheap first if I’m unsure
If I don’t know whether something fits my workflow, I’ll buy a cheaper version first. If it earns its place, then I upgrade.
3️⃣ Cashback is a bonus, not a reason
Cashback and points are nice but they don’t get to make the decision for me.
4️⃣ Timing matters
I don’t rush purchases.
If I still want it after a few weeks, that’s a good sign.
5️⃣ Regret > cost
The thing I try hardest to avoid isn’t spending money but it’s buying something I won’t use.
If something survives all five rules, it’s probably worth owning.
📱 Enjoying this newsletter? Share it with a friend who’s as obsessed with tech as you are:
This week’s episode is a behind-the-scenes look at something creators don’t usually talk about publicly.
After chasing unpaid affiliate fees, I ended up getting threatened by the platform instead of paid which forced me to rethink how I run the business behind the channel.
Inside this episode:
What actually happened with the affiliate platform — step by step
Why I turned down a £14k sponsorship (and what that revealed)
The changes I’m making to simplify the business behind the channel
How I’m rethinking editing workflows, Shorts strategy, and links
Fewer links, clearer focus, better conversions
What was genuinely worth buying and what wasn’t
🎧 New episodes every Wednesday
🤖 Next Issue: AI, Anxiety & Choosing What Stays Human
In the next issue, I’m unpacking my growing discomfort with how fast AI is creeping into everything and where I’m deliberately drawing the line between what I use and what I refuse.
In the next issue, you’ll get:
How I actually feel about AI (beyond hot takes and hype cycles)
Where AI genuinely helps and where it quietly makes things worse
The difference between “AI-assisted” and “AI-replaced”
What I’m choosing to keep fully human (on purpose)
My current anti-tech instincts and what triggered them
🗓️ See you Saturday.