What’s “Hivemind”?

Some people have probably already caught on to the fact that I’ve used the term “Hivemind” in a few blog entries and twitter posts to refer to a certain group of people. But what exactly is the Hivemind, and what did they do to earn such a name?

Hivemind is a term generated from the idea that “techbro” is just too specific. Technically you could extend the term to “Silicon Valley Hivemind”, but this isn’t necessarily correct because most people who I consider Hivemind aren’t even based in Silicon Valley anymore.

There’s a very loose series of qualifications for being part of Hivemind, which is why Hivemind is such a useful term to begin with. I don’t have to say “that weird guy is obsessed with bulletproof coffee and the startup hustle and the ‘future of web3′”, I can just say he’s Hivemind. And yes, most people would guess that set of traits if I had just said “techbro”, but its not the same, damn it!

I could describe hivemind with objects and ideas like the ones I just laid out, or with people (Joe Rogan, Peter Attia, Tim Ferriss) and you’ll get the gist of who exactly are the Hivemind. As to why they get the name, it comes from the fact that this group feels all tied into one another — everybody thinks the same, talks on the same podcasts, get the same section of the bookstore to themselves, etc. I don’t think Hivemind is an inherently malignant or conspiratorial group — but it is clear they have a lot of influence in modern culture, particularly when it comes to tech and business. 

 While Hivemind is very easy to make fun of, I think they are an improvement over previous generations of self helpers and gurus. While some things they say are outlandish or outside the budget of us normal folk (like getting a blood test once a month to make sure you are properly min-maxing your chemical levels), the wide majority of their advice on exercise, meditation, reducing anxiety/fear, and not reading business books is all pretty good. 

Anyways, that’s all I really wanted to talk about on this topic. Mostly needed a blog post to link back to if I mentioned Hivemind again in the future. But something tells me I’ll be coming back to this topic sooner than I think.