How Rankings Rate

Here's a link to a great op-ed from The New York Times. The essay is about our affinity for rankings ... Top Ten lists and such. The author, Austan Goolsbee from the Univ. of Chicago's School of Business, provides a much-needed reminder that in a great many cases, there are no statistically significant differences between ranked contenders, whatever the list, regardless of the category. In today's information-rich world, we tend to assume that those ubiquitous rankings are more analytically sound than they are. In reality, what we would find if we were to dig into the numbers is that there tends to be a few contenders which are measurably different, followed by a huge mass (the "pack" - if you will) tied for the next place on the list.

Enough rambling... go read it.

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Contributor: How Rankings Rate

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