Beyond all the metrics, eye-tests, conferring with fellow managers, FPLTwitterTrends, pressers, PL football player instagram feeds, post-match player/manager interviews, pundits, podcasts, FPL content creators… have I missed anything, I’m sure I have… 😆 after all of this, it boils down to one thing… Trust.

Firstly, where do you place your trust? In the plethora of options in the previous paragraph? I’m quite sure that there are many within this group who are trustworthy and deservedly so! Mind you, there will always be ambiguity, for one, we know how cagey managers can be with team news and injuries! Also, say you put your trust in one of these options and it goes belly-up?! What then? You can’t ring them up and berate them can you! Basically, the buck stops with you! It’s therefore inevitable that the one you need to believe in, the one option you absolutely NEED to trust is you!

So, how do you earn your own trust in this game? Following the herd is not going to cut it, that’s number 1. I mean even if your decision making process falls in line with the herd, it’s still a decision that you’ve procured as opposed to blindly followed. To earn your own trust, you must accept failure. It’s trial and error right?! When you fail, you learn, and learning is good! It also requires discipline, it’s far to easy to repeat known mistakes! I don’t know enough about the human condition to speak from any point of authority on the matter, but, God Damn!!! It really seems like we’re hard-wired to repeat the same mistakes over and over and over… ad infinitum!

For me, the realisation this season that trust in self… Trust that I’ll view all data objectively. Trust that I’ll not be swayed by what everyone else is doing. Trust that I’ll not dismiss information that I do not agree with. Trust that I’ll listen to the mistakes I’ve made. Trust in my cognitive process even when results are inadequate… All of these “self trusts” (and many more I’m yet to become fully conscious of) I believe, are paramount to developing success in this game!

Chinese water torture is a process in which cold water is slowly dripped onto the scalp, forehead or face for a prolonged period of time allegedly making the restrained victim insane. This form of torture was first described by Hippolytus De Marsiliis in Italy in the 15th or 16th century.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_water_torture#:~:text=Chinese%20water%20torture%20is%20a,the%2015th%20or%2016th%20century.

When you do not have this Trust, you second-guess your deliberations, constantly going in circles. Overthinking, a slow-drip stresser! You fall, and within seconds you’re so far down the rabbit-hole 🐇, going from red pill to blue pill, and back again! Your overthinking extends and long story short, the probability of everything getting Royally Fucked ♠️♥️♦️♣️, goes exponential! 🤣 Recognising the indicators of an impending tilt, leading to said stress, is something we should all familiarise ourselves with. They’re uniquely innate to each of us. We’ve repeated them many times before, second-nature if you will, so initially, they’re potentially hard to discern, but, once you’ve trained your self-recognition, or at least opened your mind to it’s own habits, they’re blindingly obvious! This I believe, is a crucial step to building self-trust and thus, Conviction.

To make good decisions in a complex world, you have to be skilled at ignoring information. 

Gerd Gigerenza

JNO v DreadFPL, the return leg went in favour of the hosts 81pts to 80pts!! So close but so far, as now there are 4 teams in contention! This group will go down to the final matchday! Both content providers in the group have bit the dust.

Information, although vital, can be a double-edged trust-killing sword. 🗡 How many times have you thought of making a move and then haven’t due to digesting more data which dissuaded you, only to kick yourself after the GW ended because that asset hauled? “I was going to bring him in as well!” – a record I’ve heard a thousand times! 🥱😈 Kick the jukebox, it’s stuck, again! 😏 So where does that leave me?! Unthinking. Maybe I don’t need all of the information gathered in order to make a better choice than I could if I based my decisions on a simple subset of the gathered information. Some information carries weight, the rest is just good to know. Too much churning of the data dulls the intuition, taming, if not completely extinguishing, the inspired – yet educated – maverick choices which equal, joy! 😁

The “random factor” is part of the DNA of this game, thus we will never find the order we continously seek to apply! DEAL WITH IT! 😈🤣🤣🤣

No, you are impatient. You have yet to master your basics!

Uncle Iroh

We’re approaching the endgame, time to keep it simple. ♟ #backtobasics