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How to Research a Purchase How to Write a Literature Note

Braindump

Table of Contents
tl;dr
the subject is settled before any query.
tl;dr
a “no” carries the burden of proof.
tl;dr
the price is the number actually paid.
tl;dr
the value is what the purchase brings over its life.
tl;dr
what the listing asserts is checked.
tl;dr
the options are handed back, the pick the user’s.

how to write a literature note

how to write and audit a note

A literature note

what
a literature note is a note whose subject calls for a literature search.
what
a literature search is the work of finding and reading sources.
what
the author is whoever wrote a source.
rule
the subject is the user’s, and the writer clarifies it before writing any other line.
rule
the writer cites what the subject assumes, or asks the user to reword it.
  • why: the assumption steers what is read and quoted.
rule
the literature search runs once the subject is settled.
rule
the note is finished when its subject is treated, not when every source is read.

The writer reports, never ever anything else

rule
the writer never states its own opinion; the note reports what the literature says.
rule
where the literature contradicts itself, the note shows the contradiction.
  • how: bullet points for simple linear reasoning, argdown for more complicated situations
rule
the writer is strictly forbidden to invent information not present in the literature

Source quality is part of the claim

Weighing a source

why
being a citation is not being evidence.
rule
the epistemic marker a source warrants is set by several dimensions, and no single one settles it.
  • proximity: primary — the thing itself or its maintainer; secondary — a third party reporting on it.
  • standing: the author’s standing in the domain the claim falls in — high where the author is known for that domain, none where the author is known for another.
  • remit: whether the claim falls inside what the source is authoritative about — a spec settles what it requires, not why it was designed so.
  • currency: whether the text still describes the current state — the version date read, the deprecation noticed.
  • interest: whether the author gains by the claim holding.
  • corroboration: whether an independent source says the same.
reserve
the dimensions are not exhaustive.

Citing a source

rule
a citation names its kind, primary or secondary.
rule
a secondary is cited only where the writer cannot reach the primary — paywalled, deprecated, untranslated — and carries the reason.
rule
the verbatim is the source’s own text, altered only by the note’s own typographic pass, taken under its canonical URL, the URL verified.
rule
the verbatim is trimmed to the single claim it backs.
rule
an unsigned source does not survive the audit — an anonymous post, an undated entry, a screenshot without provenance, an AI-generated summary.
  • why: internet is full of lies and bullshit

Source notes

rule
a source cited by several notes lives in a source note of its own
  • how: the source notes are
    1. base_de_sources_legales.org
rule
the writer is encouraged to read and improves a source note freely.

Chromium is the fallback for webfetch

rule
the writer fetches a source with webfetch, and with chromium where webfetch struggles.
  • why: chromium behaves like a real browser, so a site serves it a 403 less often.
rule
where chromium is not among the MCP tools, the writer stops and asks the user to enable it.

A purchase note

what
a purchase note is a literature note.

The subject

what
a constraint is what clarifying the subject yields.
rule
the subject of a purchase is settled when every constraint that would decide between two products is known.
  • why: a constraint left unknown cannot narrow the search, so it returns products that will not interest the user.
  • why: that search is wasted.
  • how: a constraint the user has not given is asked for, never assumed.
  • how: each constraint is made precise.
    • example: the budget as an interval of prices, not a single number.
  • example: the real use, the worst case the purchase must survive, the budget, the ecosystem already owned, what is must-have versus nice-to-have.

The search

rule
the query is worded from the literal constraint rather than a loose paraphrase.
  • example: if the search is about “Makita batteries” don’t search simply for “battery”.
rule
several products are sampled before anything is concluded about the market — its price range, its typical spec, what a given feature costs.
  • why: the first product’s traits are its own, not the market’s.

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence

rule
“it does not exist” or “it is not available” carries the burden of proof.
  • why: the positive needs one listing shown, where “it is not available” rules out every listing there is, and “it does not exist” every product ever made.
  • why: an empty result cannot formally reject the hypothesis that the thing exists, though it can be reason enough to set it aside.
  • how: what is reported is what was searched and not found, never the negative itself.

A prior steers the search

rule
the search is worded to test the prior it started from, not to feed it.
  • example: “a cheap one of these probably doesn’t exist” shapes the query so the results confirm it.
rule
the user’s expectation is kept out of how the evidence is read.

The price

what
the price is the amount of money leaving the user’s account when purchasing the product

The price only, not what looks like it

rule
only one number counts — the one this user actually pays.
  • why: a number put beside the price anchors the judgement before it is reasoned.
  • how: that number is quoted, computed where it is not shown.
  • how: only what is needed to arrive at that number is extracted, the others left where they are.
    • why: telling an agent to ignore an anchor is not enough to unanchor it1.
rule
where that number cannot be found, the note says so rather than quoting another.
  • why: claiming a false price is worse than acknowledging one lacked the skill to find the real one.
rule
a discount gated behind a membership the user may not have is not this user’s price.
rule
an open-box or second-hand path is priced beside the new one.

The price is not the value

rule
whole offers are compared, not the price of one part.
  • example: a kit against the bare tool plus a battery already owned can flip which is cheaper.
rule
lifespan is folded into the value.
  • example: a swappable battery keeps the product working after a sealed cell would have ended it.
  • how: what can be repaired is checked.
  • how: whether it takes standard parts rather than the manufacturer’s own is checked.
    • why: a standard part outlives any one supplier, where the manufacturer’s own depends on it still being sold.

The product

Authenticity is not taken on the seller’s word

scope
only where the subject makes authenticity one of the constraints.
rule
“compatible with X” or “for X” does not establish that the product is X’s own.
  • how: such a product is not counted as X’s own until it is verified as one.
rule
a claim of authenticity is verified against who the seller is, not against what the seller writes.
  • why: an open marketplace vets nobody, so who the seller is has to be established rather than assumed.
  • how: whether the brand lists the storefront as its own is checked.
  • reserve: no other check is known.

Be careful: a listing is written to sell

rule
nothing the seller writes on a listing is evidence.
why
a figure from the listing is a marketing lie.
  • example: “6 Ah” in a badly translated title, stuffed with keywords, meaning nothing in particular.
rule
a figure from the listing is reported as the listing’s word, never as fact.
rule
a figure from the listing does not decide between two products.
  • why: nothing the seller writes on a listing is evidence, so none of it can decide.
rule
a source off the listing is looked for.
  • how: the manufacturer’s spec is looked for.
  • how: an independent review is looked for.
rule
where the listing is all there is, the epistemic marker states how little backs it.
  • example: “Ø 50 mm max” on a hole saw, with nothing but the listing behind it.

A rating is not a verdict

rule
the variant a review is of is checked before the review is weighed.
  • why: a listing’s reviews may be of another variant, or of another product merged into it.
rule
the count behind an average is read, not the average alone.
rule
a split distribution is read as two populations, not one verdict.

What the note looks like eventually

rule
the note lays out the options and their trade-offs, the pick being the user’s.
  • why: the user makes an educated choice only from flat information.
  • how: the tl;dr of the note shows the options in a matrix.
    • why: a matrix is a good way to compare options visually
rule
the higher the price, the stronger the argument the note carries for the purchase.

  1. primary — « simple algorithms such as … Ignoring Anchor Hints … are not sufficient » — Anchoring Bias in Large Language Models: An Experimental Study,

    https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.06593 ↩︎