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Top Ten Reasons for the Existence of the Top 10's!

The Top Ten list has become a staple of newspapers, television and magazines for a variety of reasons, the top ten being:

1. Ten is a common and familiar number, the base of our number system.

2. People like information to be encapsulated, they’re impatient with long, discursive explanations. They want facts and they want them now.

3. The list is consistent with the linear approach to problems.

4. It’s a kind of ritual.

5. It has biblical resonance, the Ten Commandments being one of its first instances.

6. The list can be a complete story.

7. It’s easy to write, there is no need to come up with transitions.

8. It’s flexible and capable of handling any subject.

9. Lists are widely ready and talked about.

10. People realize it’s an artificial form and like to see if it’s going to run out of good points before it gets to 10.