I used to think that things like block builders and bundles were far removed from retail investors—anyway, I’d just click swap, and once the transaction went through, that was it.

Now I understand: you don’t need to become an engineer, but you should know how your transaction is being bundled, whether someone might front-run it, and why sometimes the same operation costs significantly more—just that much is enough.

To put it simply, a bundle is when someone packs a bunch of transactions and inserts them into a block in sequence; if the order changes, your slippage, execution price, and failure rate can all change.
There’s not much you can do: don’t push through during the busiest times, don’t set random slippage, and try to use reliable routing/private transactions (at least to reduce the chance of front-running).
Before bridging across L2, check the current gas fees and network congestion.

Recently, everyone’s been talking about staking unlocks and the “selling pressure anxiety” caused by unlock schedules.
I’m also worried, but now I prefer to see it as a reminder that “the chain is more congested and transactions are more prone to failure during those days,” rather than obsessing over conspiracy theories every day…
Anyway, just don’t treat yourself as the main target.