Originally Posted by
ente_09
I am always amused and annoyed by such lists.
What are the qualifications of the "judges"?
What is this based on?
I worked at one of the greatest restaurants in the world (and on their list) and can tell you this list is total crap.
As an parallel example, I am a professor of neurology in a major medical school, so obviously I know my stuff in this field. Every year the US and World Report publishes a list of the best doctors. Their list of best neurologists is always a joke. They once cited my buddy as the best MS doctor in the country and I really gave him a hard time over this. He had no idea why this magazine picked him.
The point I am trying to make is that great restaurants and neurology are extremely complicated issues which require years of the correct education to master.
I do see your point of who judges and how these are arbitrary calculations. However, we gotta go by something. Word of mouth is just too hard these days. Even websites like yelp are criticized for their false reviews, etc. So we gotta have a list from somewhere.
I also see what you're saying about the medical field. Mayo clinic is always, year after year, ranked #2 in the country by US news. There are really very few "famous" doctors are Mayo. It's a good place, but each individual doctor may not be that famous. Mass General, Brigham, Columbia, etc are lower ranked, but these institutions have world-famous physicians there. Only Johns Hopkins has both a famous reputation as a hospital and has famous physicians to support that reputation.
So rankings can be inherently flawed. I see your point. But we gotta use something as a guide, right?