Why I Started The Tech JAM

Back in December, I spent 5 hours researching a docking station. Not buying it. Researching it.

The job was simple: one cable into my screen and peripherals, swap between my work laptop and my personal laptop without re-plugging six things every morning. Ten minutes of research, tops. Right?

Reading reviews. Watching YouTube videos at 1.5x. Three browser tabs of port comparisons. Two docks in my cart while I checked compatibility. A Reddit thread from 2024 about which models died after six months. A Discord buddy who’d already bought one weighing in. Back to the first option because I couldn’t decide.

Eventually I bought one. It was fine. The other two probably would have been fine too. I burned a Saturday afternoon I won’t get back.

I do this every time. And I’m starting to suspect a lot of you do too.

The internet is full of “10 BEST” lists. Not many of them are honest.

If you’ve shopped for any piece of tech in the last five years, you know the drill. You search “best [thing] for [use case]” and you get a wall of articles that all look the same. Same products in slightly different orders. Same affiliate links. Reviews that read like the author has never actually plugged the thing in.

The good reviewers exist. They’re just buried under the spam.

Meanwhile, the rest of us still have to make a decision. People with day jobs and finite weekend hours. We don’t want a 4,000-word spec teardown. We want someone we trust to say “buy this one, here’s why, and here’s what I almost bought instead.”

That’s what I’m trying to build here.

Who I am

I’m J.A.M. Late 30s, day job in finance ops, married with a kid and a dog. Most days I’m working from home, and when I’m not, I’m gaming.

I’m not a professional reviewer. Nobody sends me gear for free. There’s no YouTube studio in my basement.

What I am is a guy who can’t bring himself to buy anything tech-related without doing way too much research first.

Monitor for the home office? I read 30 reviews.
Mechanical keyboard? I owned 3 before I found the right one.
Mesh router? I tested two before I settled on one.
Gaming mouse? Don’t get me started. There’s a graveyard in a drawer in my basement.

Not a flex. I just figure most of you don’t have time to do that, and I might as well share what I’m finding.

Who this is for

If you’re 30-something or 40-something, work from home some of the time, and game on the side, this blog is for you.

Specifically, if you:

Don’t have hours to comparison-shop every tech purchase
Don’t have the budget to buy three versions of the same thing just to find the right one
Want a real person, not a content farm, telling you what’s actually worth your money
Live in the overlap where one desk has to do double duty as work and play

…welcome. You’re who I’m writing for.

I’m not here for the pros. No $5,000 audio interfaces or pro-esports peripherals. I’m here for the rest of us, adults who want a setup that does the job and doesn’t embarrass us on the next Zoom call.

What you’ll find here

You’ll see reviews of stuff I actually use. Not stuff I unboxed for an affiliate kickback. The headset I’ve worn 8 hours a day for 4 years. The monitor I almost returned. The keyboard I’m typing this on right now.

There’ll be “what I almost bought instead” pieces too. Every purchase has a runner-up, and walking through the runner-up is sometimes more useful than the review itself.

Setup walkthroughs are coming. First 30 minutes with new gear. Cable management for adults. The stuff nobody puts in the manual.

And yes, “best of” lists. Listicles work and I’ll write them, but the products on mine will all be ones I’d buy with my own money. I’ll tell you which ones I’d skip.

The honest part

Let me cut to it: this blog has Amazon affiliate links. If you click through and buy something I recommend, I get a small kickback. It doesn’t cost you anything extra.

That’s part of why I started this. I wanted a side project that could earn a little passive income without me feeling gross about it. So here’s my deal.

I won’t recommend anything I wouldn’t buy with my own money. If a product has flaws, I’ll say so, even when I’m linking to it. I’ll also tell you when something isn’t worth it; a blog that only ever says “this is great!” isn’t useful to anyone, and some of my best posts will be about stuff I returned.

Beyond that, I’ll show my work. You’ll see how I got to my recommendation, what I compared it against, and what almost changed my mind. The research is the product.

If I do that right, the affiliate side takes care of itself. If I don’t, you’ll stop reading and I’ll deserve it.

What’s next

I’ll be posting once or twice a week. First up is a walkthrough of my actual desk setup. One rig, one set of peripherals, doing both a full workday and ranked play the same evening. It’s the post I would have killed for two years ago.

Want the next post in your inbox? Drop your email below. One or two a week, sent when they go live. No spam, just what I’m researching and what I’m actually buying.

And if you’ve been agonizing over a tech purchase lately, tell me. There’s a decent chance I’ve been agonizing over it too.

Let’s stop wasting Saturdays on research.

— J.A.M.