Otherish Content: Blurring The Line Between Selfish and Selfless

Nearly every article I write, I do it because I find the content useful. It’s an article I wish others would write but don’t. Because no one was writing about lineups is why I started writing one. Last year I tried writing both the AL and NL versions rotating weeks but the two-week gap between leagues was too long. Too many changes happened. This year Al Melchior took NL teams and I went with the AL ones. Because of the extra research, I’ve noticed my mixed-league teams lean AL.

My pickups are all AL leaning probably from writing the AL lineup analysis. I have to trust others for what is going on in the NL.

— Jeff Zimmerman (@jeffwzimmerman) July 22, 2019

It’s not just my lineup article providing self-centered content. My closers rankings and FAAB projections help me make decisions and I hope they help others.

These articles have a selfish feel to them. Am I writing them for the readers or for myself? I know the answer and initially didn’t come to grips with it. That stance has changed.

I’ve come to learn there is a term when anything (e.g. article, volunteering, emotional sharing) is both selfish and selfless: Otherish. Adam Grant coined the term in his book, Give and Take. Valeria Maltoni has a nice short otherish writeup on her blog, Conversation Agent, and here is a graphic depicting different interest foci.

I got thinking about this concept yesterday while writing my waiver wire drop article. When I initially decided on the concept, I thought it would be useful to get a pulse on who might be a trade target because a disgruntled owner was getting tired of the player’s poor production. The moves I have been featuring are too obvious. They are the moves that happen in 25% or more leagues. These are the “no shit” drops. I haven’t found the drops article at all useful. I’m worried others haven’t either and the article is falling into the Apathetic region, useless for everyone.

The idea behind the article’s uselessness has been rattling around in my mind for a few weeks. Some weeks I find my lineup article worthless and other weeks I find it essential. I know articles will waver between useful and useless but every single waiver wire drop article seemed nonessential. I’m not getting what I hoped from it and by the lack of comments, probably the few readers weren’t either.

If I do find a move interesting, it’s those players dropped in just 10 to 12 leagues. Maybe the magic number is between 15% to 30% of leagues (6 to 11 leagues in the NFBC Main Event), enough to be an overall trend but not obvious. I am not sure if there is some perfect range. I found it more interesting that Andrew Casher was dropped in eight leagues than Evan Longoria in 27. In the future, I’ll probably start working with different thresholds to see what works the best.

An otherish writing focus is nothing new. It has been happening for years. I’ve observed selfish tendencies infiltrate rankings articles. The top dozen or more players will be universally owned in the writer’s leagues. The bottom half is unrosterable. There is a sweet spot of a half dozen players in play in the author’s leagues. These players are meticulously ranked while the rest of the rankings seem thrown together. The player pool is just too large to know something on everybody so most writers are usually going to focus on what matter most for them. Fantasy content consumers also need to find that sweet spot.

Those in shallow 10-team redraft leagues don’t need to worry about dynasty rankings. Owners with daily lineup moves can ignore two-start articles. Not every piece of information needs to be consumed. People must pick and choose the content that’s best for them.

What’s all this rambling mean? (Good question Jeff.) Most content providers are in some way providing selfish content. They got into writing fantasy baseball because they like playing fantasy baseball and attempt to find an edge. If they publicly provide every advantage is a completely different discussion. As for myself, otherish content will continue to be the norm as long as my editors allow it. If I find the information helpful, hopefully, someone else does. I think that is all I can ask.