I once tried treating testnet points as "practice," but it ended up feeling more and more like waiting for a paycheck: daily monitoring tasks, cross-chain transfers, running transactions in a row, with the mental default that I could exchange them for something later. Honestly, when everyone’s expectations rise together, it’s easy to get caught up; even though it’s zero-sum and uncertain, I still give myself overtime KPIs.

Later, I set a very simple stop-loss for myself: once it starts affecting my serious work or sleep, or if I have to check a single transaction three times to avoid losing assets, I stop. Also, there’s a cost stop-loss—calculate gas + time into a number, and if it exceeds that, just give up. Don’t turn yourself into free labor for a “possible airdrop.”

Recently, in the group, we discussed extreme funding rates—whether it’s a reversal or just more bubble squeezing. It seems pretty similar to this situation: people aren’t really practicing, they’re betting on a collective expectation. Anyway, I’m taking it slow; if I miss out, I miss out. At least I won’t be led around by expectations.