Lately, a lot of people have been discussing block builders and bundles—how much do retail investors really need to understand? I think you shouldn’t push yourself into becoming a half engineer. Knowing that “the order you place may not execute in the exact order you want” is enough. Especially with those swaps on public chains that are immediately visible at a glance—the packers will choose what to include and how to sequence things. In plain terms, you can’t control it.

I’ll note one thing for myself: seeing the same route/transaction repeatedly adjust gas in the mempool and then still get stuck in pending—nine times out of ten, someone is watching nearby. Once, the address 0x8d…3a dropped three bundles back-to-back, and the price instantly slid away. I just canceled the order and switched to a limit price—I’d rather go slower.

Recently, new L1/L2 projects have been launching incentives to pull in TVL. I also understand why older users complain about “digging, pumping, selling.” During the incentive period, it’s easiest for robots and smart money to rush in; when retail investors join the excitement, it actually feels more like they’re providing liquidity for other people. Anyway, my bottom line right now is: don’t use large market orders, don’t chase when the network is congested, split your orders if you can, and don’t force yourself to fight by the “bundling” playbook. That’s it for now.