Unrealized losses and unrealized gains really aren’t the same scale… When you’re up, you might only mutter in your head, “Not bad,” and then keep scrolling on your phone. But once you’re down—especially that kind of slow, blade-like cut where you carve out the loss, even though it’s only a few percentage points—the feeling is like the ceiling is pressing down as you lie in bed at night. You keep flipping through your calculations, figuring out your position and your liquidation price, and your mind simply won’t shut off. Put bluntly, our sensitivity to “losing” is naturally several times higher than our sensitivity to “gaining”—it’s hardwired into our genes. You can’t change it.

Recently, after looking at all kinds of testnet incentives and point expectations, everyone’s guessing whether the mainnet will actually hand out tokens. Some people get swept up by the anxiety of “what if I miss out,” and end up rushing in hard. Anyway, I watch it and feel tired for them. Sometimes I honestly think losing money isn’t what torments you the most—the real torment is all that self-tugging and back-and-forth for the entire night before you even realize it. (Narration: Don’t ask me how I know—just know it’s because I’ve just woken up.)