I’ve been reading Ken Leebow’s Blogging about Incredible Blogs for some time now. Sometimes I agree to what he writes, sometimes I don’t. Today I don’t.
Few days ago he wrote this post, in which he says:
You really only need to read ten blogs. It’s the 80/20 Rule: You’ll get 80% of your information from those ten.
I don’t agree.
I think that this is true only if you are reading blogs for news. Every industry or area of interest out there pretty much has a couple of high traffic sites that post all the news. Slashdot is a good example of technology site. Gizmodo and Engadget are good examples for gadget audience. Photography Blog for reviews of photography equipment, technique articles, and artist portfolios.
But many people, including myself, read blogs for opinions. When the same news article is written about by different people from different countries, different age groups, with different education, cultural backgrounds and social environments – that is when things get interesting. More viewpoints provide for better understanding.
Take technology – there are a few famous well writing people who speak about technology from different points of view. Examples: Paul Graham, Joel Spolsky, Eric Raymond, Miguel de Icaza.
Further on, there are some blogosphere areas, where news per se aren’t the main point of interest. Parenting for examlpe. I am not at all interested in new products, companies, book reviews, or anything else that usually occupies space of the major baby industry blogs. Instead, I want to read about parenting experiences. I like blogs that tell me what kids did and how parents reacted. The more blogs I read the better parent I become, as I am better prepared for a wider variety of situations.
Photoblogs is another good example. There are more than ten artists that I really want to follow. Neither one of them copies syndicates images from other blogs. Each one produces his own content.
And then, of course, are all those people that I am personally interested in. Only a few people, that I know personally, blog, but they are enough to cover that choose-10-blogs-only list.
That’s why I don’t agree with “You really only need to read ten blogs.” statement.