Ne No Decision

Skip the probe because no live action depends on the answer; clarify the decision or exit.

It's the third evening this week you've spent deep in espresso machine reviews, with a comparison spreadsheet open and strong opinions forming about heat exchangers. You are not buying an espresso machine. You're renting a small place with no counter space, and no purchase date exists even in fantasy.

This is a stop rule rather than a technique: when no live action depends on the answer, skip the evidence-gathering entirely. The cue is being unable to name what you would do differently once you knew. Run the check in two steps: ask "what decision does this inform, and when does that decision happen?" If the answer is none and never, you have two honest exits: clarify a real decision (set a purchase month and budget, then research against those constraints when the time comes) or close the tabs and take the evenings back. What changes is that research becomes either targeted or dropped, and the low-grade obligation to keep up with a decision you're not making disappears. One caveat: genuine recreational curiosity is a fine way to spend an evening. Just label it entertainment instead of dressing it up as due diligence, so it competes fairly with everything else you do for fun.