I’ve often wondered whether there is a way to discern value in a piece of writing, without being a specialist in the particular domain. This is a pertinent issue as the proliferation of social media has exponentially increased not just the amount of specialized writing, but the preference for short and succinct writing. And as “more” is not necessarily “better”, it would be useful to have a way to gauge whether our highly technologized world is more value-full in terms of communicating meaning.

I propose that the generalized fingerprints of value can be detected by the non-specialist possessing the right lens.

Simplicity and clarity are two unmistakable signs of intelligence. No matter how complex the subject introduced, an intelligent specialist will reduce it to simple, generalized explanations. And the logical clarity of the message “architecture” will reinforce the simplicity of the content.

Still, simplicity and logical clarity are a necessary sign of intelligent writer but not sufficient to prove the value of the message itself. Another ingredient is needed, which I tentatively term “tacit mechanics”.

The best illustration of the tacit mechanics feature is a concrete example.

Stephen Kann’s “Microcap Investment Strategies” blog article is a brief overview in simple terms and clear logic of the microcap investment algorithm. I propose this article is a value-full piece of writing based on the simplicity-clarity-tacit mechanics logical construct.

In this particular case, simplicity and clarity alone demonstrate an astute writer. But there is more to this article than coherence; there are the fingerprints of fundamental value.

Stephen references in this blog two flavors of tacit mechanics associated with microcap investment that demonstrate a profound  and value-full understanding of the topic: “information arbitrage” and “inflection points”.

Information arbitrage for microcap investment can be related to a universal mechanics of commercial operations: success of any commercial operation is dependent on exploiting physical, or in this case informational market differentials.

Inflection points also are a proxy for an appreciation of the non-linear business growth process that is particular of smaller enterprises, and the dynamics of which cannot always be derived from historical performance and statistical trends. The dynamics implied in Stephen’s inflection points are in fact aligned with the latest management and business strategy thinking that embraces complexity science and system-theoretic principles, which go much beyond standard economic and financial modeling.

The reference to the article follows:

http://microcapminute.wordpress.com/2009/11/19/microcap-investment-strategies/