Should brain surgeons be nurses? Should airline pilots be stewardesses? Should chefs wash the dishes? No, no, no - of course they shouldn't. These are all highly specialised professions that require years of training and study. A brain surgeon, by definition, doesn't mop up after his work. Pilots, by definition, don't serve Diet Cokes. Chefs, by definition, don't scrub dirty pans.

And should CIOs or CTOs be bloggers? Should they be encouraged by their CEOs to distribute their ideas onto the internet for anyone to read?

Some of you will nod affirmatively at the last question. The ideal of blogging has acquired such democratic chic that anyone who doesn't blog is considered a bit of an elitist (not that elitism, in my not-so-humble opinion, is a bad thing). But the truth is actually quite the opposite. Blogging is no more democratic than - and is as stupid as - making a fool of oneself in the full public gaze of a reality television show.

Technologists are generally pathetic writers, just as writers are generally rotten technologists. These two professions exist at opposite ends of the creative spectrum. Competent technologists are precise, exact, literal - experts in creating order out of mayhem; talented writers are creative, entertaining, ambivalent, authorities in the creation of mayhem.

Who would have the nerve to ask Martin Amis or Philip Roth to write a line of code? Who would dare request that Margaret Atwood or JK Rowling fix a broken link or build a private network? So when a CIO blogs, he or she expresses themself in the manner of a thinking machine. Their written "work" is generally pedestrian, leaden, as dull as a user manual, as elegant as Microsoft Vista's operating system.

There is the odd exception, of course (very odd), but mostly tech people are about as gifted in the subtle art of writing as one of the fabled infinite monkeys - you know, those primates with typewriters who eventually, given an infinite amount of time, would tap out a masterpiece.

Too valuable to blog

So what should a CEO say to the CIO or CTO who, having been corrupted by the latest edition of Wired, thinks he has a duty, even a moral calling, to blog ideas to the world? Rather than insulting the poor fellow with mention of his ugly writing skills, the CEO needs to display all the tact of a professional chief executive officer.

"I do appreciate your noble gesture and I'm sure you write with elegance and originality," the CEO should say, "but surely your time is much too valuable to waste on the simple art of writing. Besides," the really diplomatic CEO would add, sotto voce, "I don't think the vulgar masses on the internet have the sophistication to appreciate the depth of your written work."

There's only one danger with this strategy. It won't work if the CEO is a blogger. After all, if a CEO can blog, then so can a technology head. And that, of course, leads to another profound question: should a CEO blog?

This is a response to the article written for i-cio.com by UK government CIO - and enthusiastic blogger - John Suffolk. Do you agree? Have your say by commenting below.

Andrew Keen's forthcoming book, Digital Vertigo, will be published by St Martin's Press. He is on Twitter: @ajkeen