Mr. City Rankings Answers Your Questions

Bert Sperling, who has earned recognition for his lists of "Best Places," responds to questions posed by the readers of the Freakonomics blog.

1 minute read

October 6, 2008, 11:00 AM PDT

By franny.ritchie

"Sperling, with a background in accounting and engineering, owned a software company in the mid-1980's. When he spotted a study that ranked Pittsburgh as the best place to live in the U.S., he wrote some software that allowed people to generate ranked lists of places tailored to their preferences. After this system was written up in USA Today, Sperling was asked by Money magazine to compile its first "best places" list."

"He has agreed to field your questions here, so fire away. (Wasilla, anyone?) As with our past Q&A's, we'll keep the comments section open for a few days and then post Sperling's responses in short order."

Dozens of questions have been posted so far, with answers forthcoming in the next several days.

Thanks to Franny Ritchie

FULL STORY: Freakonomics blog

Thursday, October 2, 2008 in Freakonomics (Opinion) on The New York Times

Social / Demographics United States Humor Public Participation Community Identity

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