There’s something deeply human about trying to solve a real problem with an imaginary solution. We all do it from time to time — telling ourselves everything will be fine while having no actual plan, or painting a rosy picture when the reality is far grimmer. The Chinese idiom 画饼充饥 (huà bǐng chōng jī), which translates roughly to “drawing cakes to satisfy hunger,” captures this perfectly. It’s one of those sayings that has survived for centuries because it describes something so universally recognizable that it never gets old.

The image is almost comical when you first hear it: someone sitting hungry, frantically sketching pastries on a piece of paper and pretending to eat them. Ha! you think, what a ridiculous thing to do. But once you stop laughing, you realize you’ve probably done something functionally identical at least once in your life. Maybe you told yourself that looking at a travel magazine was basically the same as booking a trip. Maybe you spent an hour watching cooking videos while actually quite hungry yourself. Maybe you accepted a vague promise of future reward as a substitute for actually negotiating for what you deserved.

The line between clever coping and self-deception is thin, and 画饼充饥 walks right along it.