This morning I left the house and got stuck in traffic like a dog, waiting half an hour at a red light, and suddenly I thought of the mempool... Do you think clicking "Confirm" is the end of it? Actually, it's just like putting your car into a line without any lanes marked; miners/validators pick cars to go on the highway, whoever pays the higher "toll" gets to go first, pay less and you'll slowly soak up the sun, or even get kicked back to requeue.

What's more annoying is that during congestion, your transaction might first be stuck in "Pending," then later get bumped out by someone else doing the same operation (a replacement with the same nonce), looking like it disappeared, but actually it's just standing still at the back of the queue. Then suddenly a large transfer on the chain, or a hot wallet move from an exchange, and the comment section starts saying "Smart money is here," but honestly, during congestion, everyone looks like smart money: those who bid high go first, those who bid low can only watch their coffee cool. Anyway, now I always check the queue length before placing an order, or my mood will be directly taught by gas fees.