I like numbers. I work with numbers mostly every day. Sometimes it’s math, sometimes it’s just figuring why elements of a webpage don’t align nicely. I don’t believe in 13 or in 7 or in any other lucky or unlucky number, though. I keep my relationship with numbers purely professional.

There’s this thing that’s happening on the web. If you’re an internet user, yes that was a joke, you are bound to have come across some articles that are titled <Insert Number> things to know about <Insert Buzzword>. If you haven’t, well, you’re lucky.
At first, I didn’t care much. The title made sense and it informed us, the users, that said article was merely a list of either pieces of info or links. Most articles titles were 10 things to know about Vista or 5 draw-backs of using XMLHttpRequest. They were usually good articles and presented the info in an easy-to-fathom manner.

That was three years ago. It’s gotten old. And boring, and somewhat irritating. What’s more irritating is the fact that people are not even trying anymore.  What used to be 50 jQuery Plugins now is … 14 jQuery Plugins or 129 Cool wallpapers — what the hell?

9 things to know about Ubuntu? Seriously, try harder. It seems that we, the obedient flock of web readers have been trained to think those articles that start with numbers are well-written and are just right for us. I am overreacting, naturally. It’s alost an obession, so I’m pretty biased. But the thing is, once you see it, you start seeing it everywhere. More than you should.

Just look at Digg’s top stories every now and then, and you’ll see what I mean.