“I think the really important thing to me — which is probably not a healthy thing — is I want to make sure the people I’m with have the best time possible,” Dan told me. Some version of the “hottest new restaurants of the year” could be found in local newspapers and magazines for decades — not to mention the best dentists, doctors, schools. Listicles proliferated as a kind of content that was easy to produce, easy to attract attention to, easy to sell ads against. The best easy-to-assemble tents, the 30 softest midrange nightgowns, the 17 smoothest razors under $50, the top seven waterproof briefcases. There are best-of lists of less concrete things, too: the 100 best novelists of the past 100 years; rich lists; the 30 under 30.

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