>List making is for fun and amusement, not actual use in real life.
Sure,... Except many people have essentially that kind of attitude in real life. One symptom of it is the so called "Mr. Right" syndrome.
Anyways, lists are not totally pointless, experience tells you there are things you need and things you must avoid, and that's a useful list to have, if you don't want to relive the same failures once again.