Back in the good ol' days, when entertainment was more theoretical than a science based on algorithms and other maths, entertainers would come up with one good shtick and run it into the ground. For example, Rodney Dangerfield made an epic career on comedy based on the idea that he couldn't get any respect. And Woody Allen had an epic career as a film maker as the guy who slept with underaged girls. Shticks can work wonders.

Another example is David Letterman. As a nondescript comedian and weatherman, Letterman was handed the “Late Show” because no one else wanted it. As Letterman and NBC waited for audiences to take a shine to Letterman's style of comedy, Letterman came up with a “Top-10 List” to start his show. Now this was shtick that worked. Letterman's show took off and sent him rocketing to the greatness of being an Oscar host and muttering “Uma … Oprah …” all night. That's how big the Top-10 lists were for him.

Now, during those years (the 1950s or something), when one person had a good idea, everyone else on the planet respected it like there was an actual commandment about stealing. So for years and years and years, only Letterman dared to do a Top-10 list of any type. Those were the days when the word “content” could only be found in books behind the worlds “Pages of,” however. These days, experts know that the typical human requires and almost unstoppable parade of entertainment at all times to keep themselves from blowing their brains out. Content is king, and no one is ever content with the amount of content.

It is with this in mind that we pay homage to the Top-10 list by looking at the Top-10 Top-10 lists of 2018. With the help of a few experts, here's a look at the Top-10 of 10 subjects from sports to lifestyle that should give you the content you need to take on the day.

10) Top-10 Worst Passwords of 2018: If there is one thing we humans can learn, it's that we humans will never learn. This, the year we learned that Kanye West uses “00000” as his iPhone password is yet another year we learn that “123456” and “password” are still among the world's most popular passwords. Take a look at the SplashData list here.

9) Top-10 Best Podcasts of 2018: Podcasting has become a juggernaut the past decade and now there is literally a podcast for everyone out there. Taking a look at this offering from Vulture is Melanie Dione, part of the Bad Advice Show Podcast. “I'm shooting myself in the foot here as someone with a 'conversational podcast, but stream of consciousness gab-fests among friends can be hard to follow,” said Dione, who co-hosts here podcast with comedians Cerrome Russell and Gordon Baker-Bone. “The evidence of what makes these "top" were concise and complimentary without pandering. As a podcaster who doesn't really listens to podcasts, I subscribed to three of them.” See the Vulture article here.

8) Top-10 Newsmakers in Golf in 2018: Sports, as a rule, are essentially top-10 lists just waiting to happen and golf is no different. Golf Channel – the dominant golfing content site in the known universe today – comes up with a list a and look at these 10 people and situations that dominate their sport, but it all comes off as maybe a little sad that after all these years Tiger Woods won something and is back at No. 1. See the Golf Channel list here.

7) Top-10 Stand-Up Comedians of 2018: No sense messing around here. Let's go to comedian Corky McDonnell to give a breakdown of Time Magazine's breakdown of comedians: “These specials have all the elements that make the best stand-up comedy: standing (preferably vertically), sadness, pain, pathos, the audacity of hopefully overcoming all that sadly painful pathos, and lastly (and definitely least important for this list)...comedy,” said McDonnell, a co-host of the “Dare Daniel Podcast.” “Make no mistake, every one of these specials is funny and worthy of being remembered at year end lists**. However, if this list could apologize for having to reference comedy at all it would. Comedy has often been described as "speaking truth to power," but what turns on the makers of this list is the comedy of powerfully speaking your truth.”

6) Top 10 List for Reducing Threat of Semi IP Hacking: Ok, I'm not even going to pretend to know what's happening here, but as we start 2019, maybe we should all study hacking a little more. Let Ted Miracco, the CEO of Smartflow, give you 10 ways to help protect your semiconductor company. See the Electronic Design List here.

5) Top-10 Business Books Shared by Barack Obama, Bill Gates and Other Successful People: Here's a simple fact – if you don't buy any of these books, you'll be a head of the game by at least the amount of the book. Of course, if this is your thing, let CNBC tell you where to find some motivation for riches here.

4) Top-10 TV Shows of 2018: The Good Place is first in this list because that's the law now. Some other good finds in this Vanity Fair List include Benedict Cumberbatch's “Patrick Melrose” and Phoebe Waller-Bridge's and Sandra Oh's “Killing Eve.” See the rest of the list here: https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/12/best-tv-shows-2018-top-10-list

3) Top-10 Smartest People of 2018: We all recognize that you should probably be on this list, ok? But let's give the eggheads their due, including top-rated Grigori Perelman, a Russian scientist with an IQ of 238. The other thing we get from this list is the knowledge that having a 238 IQ doesn't give you any special powers outside of being able to solve ridiculously complicated math problems. See the entire list - which you aren't on - here:

2) Top 10 Red Dead Redemption 2 Secrets And Easter Eggs: In the era of Trump and with the likelihood of a complete collapse of civilization at our doorsteps, it takes a special kind of videogame to make everyone stop and notice. RDR2 was such a game and it came at a time when all of us desperately need to spend 100s of hours focusing away from reality. See the video here.

1) The Year's Best Movies: Bill Simmons created The Ringer not to long ago and he smartly hired a bunch of smart young guns to take the lead. Here is Director Dan Mirvish (Bernard & Huey, Between Us) taking a look at this list.

“It's a solid movie Top 10 that accomplishes what the best of them do:  A nod to the critical consensus, thus establishing bona fides. Pandering to its more mainstream readership with a couple blockbusters so as not to sound too aloof,”wrote Mirvish, the founder of the Slamdance Film Festival. “And one or two idiosyncratic choices to stand out from the film critic orthodoxy. Finally, like the best of this year's Top 10 film lists, it conspicuously ignores my own film, "Bernard & Huey (now available on Amazon Prime!).”