Right now, I’m checking whether the project is actually working on something, rather than just looking at how pretty the roadmap is (anyone can write that stuff).

I’ll go review the treasury / multi-signature expenses: where the money is spent, whether the pace matches the milestones.
Honestly, spending is the most honest progress indicator—if long-term development, security audits, infrastructure, and community support are all nowhere in sight, but there are constant “market partnerships” and “incentive budgets” pouring out, I start to have doubts.

Recently, a bunch of new L1/L2 projects are starting to issue incentives to boost TVL, and I can understand the old users’ complaints of “mining, selling.”
I also get it: the treasury funds are all used to pile up data, it looks lively on-chain, but product iteration seems to be stuck…
I usually focus on this first, and after a couple of weeks, check if the expenditure structure has changed and if milestones have been achieved;
if they’re still just throwing candy, I’ll quietly unfollow, so I don’t get emotionally pulled along.
Anyway, after finishing my coffee and laying out the data, I basically become clear-minded.