An incidental report claims that someone has tried to analyse what popularity is, and has a web site where you can look at some of their "results."

The slightly sensationalized report, which may be of interest to some with a particular view of "popularity" is at:

MIT ranks most popular people in 20th century.

1,064 soccer players qualify vs. 1 football player (It's O.J.)

Nicholas Mendola
Mar 17, 2014

Fame feels like a pretty arbitrary term, but MIT is trying to make it a bit more concrete. Using an elaborate system, the elite American school has put together a list of the most famous people in the entire world.
Not that it's foolproof, but it is MIT. And it includes two American soccer players.

MIT ranks nearly everything in a project called Pantheon, and the New York Times can help you place the study in context before we get to the soccer player part.

"It has collected and analyzed data on cultural production from 4,000 B.C. to 2010. With a few clicks on its website, which just went live, you can swing through time and geography, making plain the output of, say, Brazil (largely soccer players) or Belarus (politicians). It also ranks professions from chemists to jurists to porn stars."

***

A link in the article is to a previous article that says a little more, and more of the same, about the site:

MIT ranks nearly everything in a project called Pantheon,

A second link in the article claims you can look in the site to see other "results:"

Take your own trip through Pantheon here

I haven't taken much of a look at what's there as yet; but maybe the idea they're trying to figure out may have some value (?).

Comments?

John