TrialNerd_Beth said:

Order of operations matters more than any single choice here: establish a baseline, change one thing, wait long enough for it to express itself, then…

Correct, and worth adding that it is reversible. Nothing being described here is a one-way door, which changes how cautious it is reasonable to be.

jennifer_SEA said:

Right, and one flattering data point from a group buy is not consistency.

Saving this. It is the first explanation that did not require me to already understand it. I will report back once I have actually tried it.

TrialNerd_Beth said:

Order of operations matters more than any single choice here: establish a baseline, change one thing, wait long enough for it to express itself, then…

Careful with the causal language. Two things moving together in a period when five things changed is not a mechanism, and stating it as one makes the thread less useful to somebody reading it later.

One concrete data point for the thread. The boring version of this is the one that works, and the boring version is: measure a baseline, change one variable, wait, measure again under the same conditions. Nobody wants that answer and it is still the answer.

I would rather be corrected than agreed with, if it comes to it.

Moderator note: good thread. Keeping it here rather than moving it, because the question is general enough to be useful.