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Seems to me there is a hierarchy of blog posts (inspired by Maslow’s hierarchy) in terms of blogging satisfaction. Read on, and let me know if it makes sense. Typically blog posts with the dominant category further along the hierarchy are likely to have elements which satisfy the earlier categories in the hierarchy as well. The classification is perhaps even applicable for tweets (though tweets simultaneously satisfying multiple categories are a little rare to come by.)

• Narrative : Diary, Journal, Things that happened, Event log etc.
  These are posts of something that happened or is about to happen. While in most cases the author simply wants to share the sequence of events, in some cases the sequence itself might be meant to trigger some thoughts, analysis in the mind of the reader. In such situations, the post is actually at a very different level than a narrative.
• Informative : How to, Top Ten Lists, Presentations
  These are perhaps the lowest on the individual expressiveness and attempt to provide a lot of value to the reader. This is probably also the most dominant category in terms of number of posts.
• Opinionated : Rants, Demands, Support, Cheer, Rage
  These are posts where the author wants to be active in either supporting or declining support for some particular incident, cause, organisation, philosophy etc. These are the posts where the author is perhaps the most expressive and emotional simultaneously. These are the posts where the author would like something different from the way things exist at the moment. My slight reservation with these posts is that while they are strong in expressiveness and can collectively be made to act as change agents, given the emotion which clouds both the author’s thought process and the readers ability to interpret the content, these posts unless they are able to elevate themelves into either of the next two categories, rank very low on reader value creation.
• Analytical : Analysis, Review, Commentaries
  These are posts which use an event, a movie, a situation and attempt to draw a few inferences from them and share them with the user. These are posts where the author manages to allow his emotions to be restrained and lets his thinking cap be quite visible. These posts take on the nature of the author attempting to present his understanding of the world by taking the dots he sees and attempting to draw the lines between them to create a picture for his reader. While there is a fair amount of individual expression, these are also the posts which focus on good value creation for the reader.
• Thought Provoking : Sorry .. can’t think of any other word to describe them
  These posts could really be about anything. They don’t aim at providing answers. Heck, they don’t even provide questions. They focus on content which require the users to come up with their own set of questions, to be answered in their own sweet time. They cause the user to think about these posts long after having moved on to other content. These posts are not directly catalysts to change, they are catalysts to a more enlightened reader. To me these are also the most fulfilling to read.

Is this classification really important ? : Thats entirely upto the blogger. But it seems to be helpful to have a good idea about it up front when you write a post, so that you can have a reasonable focus accordingly. Just like its better to know upfront, how much a blogger wants to focus on expressiveness and readership value creation before starting to compose a post.

I still remember being impressed by Karl Marx and Communism in the early eighties only to be strong believer in Capitalism by the end of the decade. Since then, I have rarely looked back to question my faith in Capitalism until the economic crisis of 2008. In that questioning sweep got captured one more apparently unimpeachable cornerstone of my faith – Democracy. I don’t know if I should’ve felt so surprised on the realisation that these two have almost identical strengths and failings.

Billy Joel would find ripe pickings on both legislative and financial markets (yes both are markets with the difference being the currency – votes and notes) around the world, should he want to extend “We Didn’t Start the Fire (in Flash)”. This song talks about many significant episodes in the 20th century, many of them with negative consequences. It also talks about the individual refrain in terms of absolving self of responsibility by saying – we didn’t start the fire.

Both Democracy and Capitalism are feedback based auto correcting systems. This is their strength. This is what makes them sustainable, and perhaps the best options in the long run. This is also their weakness. The feedback loop takes time to act (it won’t kick in until the fuel for the collectively sponsored ponzi scheme runs out) and by the time it does, the wrong steps have levied a heavy toll. But as these systems have proved time and time again, that even if inefficient these are the most effective systems. But this has come at a cost. The’ve strengthened our faith in them at the cost of our faith in ourselves. If the system is responsible to correct itself, surely an individual does not need to play much of a role – we simply go with the system and correct ourselves as it does and pay the tabs that it leaves for us in the process – Right ?

There are things that we can ask ourselves in advance before the systems go through their next sinusoidal dive. Should I be investing if the market that seems to be going up too fast because others are investing, should I be voting for someone who promises growth over healing since others are doing so, should I be borrowing so that my expenditure can exceed my incomes since others are doing so, should I be expecting rich valuations for my efforts which I can’t understand because others are expecting so, and should I be making promises that are likely difficult to keep because others are doing so. While being able to identify the trend (and especially the correction) in time can offer rich pickings, I don’t know that most of us would be able to pull it off. However what we can do is apply common sense. In many cases if it doesn’t make sense for you, it eventually wont make for the system which shall then auto correct. In the meanwhile you have these choices – if you have confidence in your abilities to time the system, exploit it but get out just in time, or take responsibility to be a contrarian and act for yourself now, or go with the flow and sing “We didn’t start the fire” later.