Top X Lists

June 21, 2002

Fast Company is running The 15 Best Product Designs (via Premium Blend). Why do magazines feel the compulsive need to come up with lists of stuff (such as "The 100 greatest songs of all time", "the 15 best product designs", "the 10 best uses of theremin in avant-guard music since 1979") in order to generate a couple of seconds of controversy? Why are we all such suckers to keep debating these lists and give them more relevance than they are due? We're only encouraging editors to spawn even more lists. What's next, "The 10 Worst 'x Best Lists' of All Time"?