Tis the season to make Top 10 lists. Why? Because we are hurtling with unavoidable haste toward the end of another calendar year.

The world is in the grip of a rankings mania. This week alone the city of Melbourne, Australia, has been awarded the mantle of Most Livable City and World’s Friendliest City in the space of days. And don’t they want you to know it. But what does it all really mean?