Self-Organization: Designing from Experience

I have noticed something interesting that may be useful to you: rather than deciding in advance the categories I would use to organize these posts for you, I am allowing categories to emerge organically.  This is slower but deeper and longer-lasting.  Here is how it works: I write a post and think about both what it’s about and how I would find it if I weren’t its author.  I come up with a category name and create it, or if it’s already created, apply that name.  I do the same with tags.  The goal is not too many but just enough.

Then I go back and since I still have comparatively few posts published, I go back and refine the categories.  I remove some that have few entries, recombine them with others, and in some cases, add new categories or tags that highlight aspects of posts I think you will find most interesting.  WordPress is nicely organized that way–so I can have as many categories and tags as I like.  This is also enough rope to hang myself if I’m not careful! 

It’s the going back and recombining and redistributing that feels really good.  It feels like planting many seeds, then going back and both thinning some, and replanting some to give them more space.  It’s cognitive gardening!  What will bear most fruit for my readers?  That is my question.  And what is the structure latent in my reality that will help me?