I used to be a little paranoid—always saying, “I only look at the chain.” When I saw the mempool jam up, I felt like the market was sending me signals. Later, I realized it’s not all that. More often than not, everyone is just squeezing into the elevator together… When you broadcast a transaction, it queues in the mempool first; paying a slightly lower gas fee is like getting a later number ticket. If you end up waiting too long, your swap might get price-slipped, or it may simply hit expiration, get kicked back, waste a bit of gas, and completely wreck your mood.

These days, with the airdrop season and the anti-sybil (anti-witchcraft) measures on the task platform, the points-based system has people getting cranked up like they’re clocking in for work. On-chain, there are sudden waves of “collective operations,” so congestion is even more common. Anyway, I’ve also applied this to trimming my positions: for transactions that need to move quickly, I’m willing to pay a bit more; for non-critical ones, I split them up, set an acceptable slippage and a cutoff time. If they get stuck, then so be it—I’m not going to fight with the mempool. You also have to manage your emotions; don’t just stare at the chain and end up getting yourself worked up.