Review: the (FPL) Hive Mind
The Hive Mind, a collective intelligence where individual opinions merge into a single consensus or dominant strategy, has already begun to shape our world—and it is doing my head in.
First of all, I saw the Hive Mind in action with Call of Duty—certain guns become "the meta," or in other words, "the best gun." Any other weapon, while serviceable, will not let you excel. What this does is eliminate variety and makes everything a bit boring.
Fantasy Premier League (FPL) has suffered from the Hive Mind effect for at least a few years now.
The last time I did well in the league was during the 2020 lockdown when I spent hours a day researching stats for individual players and teams. It was all-consuming—I would literally dream about it.
The following season—or maybe even during that one—I looked for help and found YouTube videos, like this guy. I assume he is unemployed and spends all day shoving subbuteo figures up his bum and jerking off to football stats. This meant I did not have to spend hours researching—he had done it for me.
I would listen, take it in, and decide how to form my team. Then I would listen to another podcast or read an email newsletter for more ideas. My team started to form around a nucleus of peer-reviewed, agreed-upon players.
FPL has always been about having the best players. It used to be Rooney, Michu (for that one season), Lampard, Mata, Bale. But now it seems so much tighter, and you have to have players like Hall from Newcastle (who?).
He is a £4.1m defender for Newcastle. YOU NEED HIM. And if you do not pick him, you will immediately fall into mid-table obscurity.
You cannot just have fun and wing it anymore. You need to spend at least an hour getting tips and listening to the Hive Mind.
This can be a good thing because it is easier than ever to access knowledge and compete with the megalord nerds. But it is also a bad thing because you are forced to put in a base level of effort—you cannot have casual fun with it anymore; it is too competitive.
The Hive Mind allows for very slight variation, but stray too far from the formula, and you will get punished.
Will the Hive Mind be good for humanity in general? It will make us better and more efficient, but at the cost of individual creativity.
It is hard to show flair when you can only deviate 10% from the Hive. If you try a full 100% break from the formula, you would need to get very lucky—and you only get one shot. Otherwise, you will fall far behind and struggle to catch up.
Score: 5/10 too early to tell
