At least two critics I respect, Merlin Mann and Paul Graham, have talked about this. My theory is much simpler: list posts tend to have good titles. When you’r

At least two critics I respect, Merlin Mann and Paul Graham, have talked about this. My theory is much simpler: list posts tend to have good titles. When you’re browsing a feed reader, you’re more likely to read an article called “10 Ways That Foo” than an article whose name is a complicated pun between its subject and the author’s favorite obscure novel.