Obviously, this is an obnoxious pursuit. I have found, however, that it has its uses. Back when I was playing in a punk band, for example, I could irritate and provoke my bandmates no end. By the time I name-dropped Bob Dylan and threw the Beatles back in there for the hell of it, they figured me for a mental incompetent. Ultimately, that's the point of this mania.
Lists disregard the unknown and tabulate the known, comfortably familiar and domestic.