Today I was watching the mempool (the on-chain "pending transaction queue") for a while, and during congestion, it really feels like waiting in line at a high-speed toll booth: you think you're already on the road, but you're actually still at the back, inching forward. Some people pay extra to cut in line, some keep canceling and resubmitting, and in front, there are a bunch of bots running around chaotically. Your transaction gets stuck in the "almost there" stage, and in the end, either the slippage widens or it fails outright, costing you some gas fees.

What's more annoying is that emotions can also mislead judgment. Recently, everyone has been interpreting ETF fund flows, U.S. stock risk appetite, and crypto market rises and falls as if they are tightly linked. Watching the on-chain congestion get worse and worse, I start to wonder: is it macro factors setting the rhythm, or is it just that on-chain turnover is too fast, with everyone fighting for the same door? Anyway, when there's congestion now, I prefer to slow down and do fewer transactions, so I don't get fooled by the illusion of "immediate execution."