Author: Carter Thomas
Compiled by: Deep Tide TechFlow
At a party hosted by a billionaire on Shelter Island, Kurt Vonnegut said to his friend Joseph Heller that the host—a hedge fund manager—earned more money in one day than Heller did from the entire publishing history of his popular novel (Catch-22). Heller smiled and replied, 'Yes, but I have something he can never have: contentment.'
Between the ages of 0 and 25, our brains complete most of their development. In particular, we gradually learn to rely more on the prefrontal cortex rather than the emotionally driven brain regions.
We learn to think rationally and make decisions based on 'what we believe is right' rather than 'the emotions we feel.'
When we study mental health and addiction issues, it becomes clear that this period is crucial for our growth. Sometimes, we are forced to face unexpected trauma; sometimes, we are already addicted to substances like alcohol and Adderall before we turn 20.
Or perhaps, our brains have been completely hijacked in the 'Dopamine Age'—a euphemism for how screen time and social media seriously disrupt our ability to detach from reality before our bodies are fully developed.
All these factors quietly change the way our brains operate, making it increasingly difficult to maintain clear thinking in a world where emotions are pulled daily.
Right now, we are entering a stage of the cryptocurrency market cycle where rational thinking becomes increasingly difficult.
If you've made a large profit, you might think the market will rise two or three times more;
If you just managed to break even from the peak in 2021, you might convince yourself that this breakout is the opportunity you've been waiting for all year;
If your performance isn’t as good as the market, you will feel intense FOMO (fear of missing out) and frustration, even hesitating to exit.
Behind all of this is the same issue—your prefrontal cortex struggles to resist the impact of emotional torrents.
The mind is an excellent servant but a terrible master.
The original title of this article was 'Enough,' because at the end of the day, the market truly tests whether you know when to stop. This is the essence of the problem.
Can you make a wise decision and then decisively pull out? Can you hold onto your money after earning it? Conversely, can you cut losses in time before they completely wipe you out?
The market, especially in volatile areas like the cryptocurrency market, is not about who makes the most money; it's about who can retain the most wealth five years later. After you pay your taxes and avoid those impulsive trades and irrational investments after the peak of a bull market, how much will you have left?
The ultimate goal of this journey has never been to earn a staggering amount of wealth, but to earn 'enough' money and keep it.
Everyone has their own definition of 'enough.' Some feel that $10,000 can completely change their lives, while others believe that without $100 million, they cannot be satisfied.
But what truly matters is whether they can really choose to pull out when they reach their goals.
Ironically, we could define what 'enough' is, yet we always immerse ourselves on X.com (Twitter), constantly surrounded by those bull market stories and profit-loss screenshots, stimulating our desire for more.
As someone who has experienced several cycles of the cryptocurrency market, I can assure you that you will never feel that you have enough.
Even if you buy at the lowest point and sell at the highest point, you will still feel unsatisfied.
Even if you open your Phantom wallet and can't believe that this huge sum now belongs to you, two weeks later, you will still be unable to resist trying a few 'seemingly simple' trades.
People enter the cryptocurrency market because they are inherently hard to satisfy. They enjoy the thrill while deeply fearing the passage of time. They fear that if they don't seize the opportunity now to create wealth that could change the fate of generations, it will be too late.
This way of thinking is exactly what keeps you trapped in a dilemma. For the next four years, you might keep chasing that elusive 100x return, believing that only then will it be 'enough.' With this mindset, you will ignore the fact that 'wealth accumulation takes time,' only thinking about how to quickly surpass others, fantasizing that if you earn just a little more money, you can fill that 'sense of satisfaction' that has been missing in your heart for all these years.
However, the reality is that this sense of satisfaction will never truly arrive for most people.
No matter when the top of the market arrives—maybe today, maybe months later, or maybe at the end of 2025—you will always feel it’s not enough.
Even if you see the market experiencing the craziest surge, with all the top signals flashing and you sell all your coins for huge profits, a month later, when you see another meme coin skyrocketing again, you will still feel it's not enough.
Even if you take profits promptly when the market starts to correct, protecting your trades, you will still feel it's not enough.
In this market, no outcome will truly satisfy you. This is the crux of the problem—making money at this speed will lead most people to lose their ability to think rationally, especially those easily swayed by emotions.
The only answer is to accept this truth of the cryptocurrency market and recognize that when you try to make money, 'comfort' is your greatest enemy. If you don’t want to repeatedly experience the ups and downs of wealth, you must replace that excitement with a mundane but practical plan.
Accepting this may make you feel lost or even painful, as you have to face the fact that you will not become someone like Cobie or Bonk Guy, remembered in the history of cryptocurrency. You may never become the person you have always longed to be—a person loved and respected, someone who can experience love and unconditional admiration.
You must break free from these self-driven illusions and accept the reality of the market. None of us is special; most are only able to endure this volatility because they are lucky enough or rational enough.
This is not a prediction of prices—no one knows what will happen next. It’s just a reminder: you will never feel that you are 'enough.'
Even if Bitcoin rises to $300,000, you will still feel it's not enough; even if SOL rises to $1,000, you will still feel it's not enough.
You need to learn to make decisions outside of these emotions, just as you need to eat healthy food and stick to exercise, even when you don’t want to, but you know it’s the right choice.
Unfortunately, very few people can make money in the cryptocurrency market after taxes are deducted. And those who can retain that wealth years after a bull market ends are even rarer.
The only way to ensure your success is to stop relying on intuition and start thinking rationally. Intuition can be left for your emotional life, but the market only believes in logic.
This game should be fun, but it should never make you feel comfortable. It should be like athletic training—full of challenges, hardships, but with rich rewards. True satisfaction comes from continuous progress, not from the vanity of boasting.
When you truly realize that you already have 'enough,' that moment is when you have won. It is at that point that you genuinely begin to step toward true wealth.
