The same logic is applicable to news headlines. I purposely avoid consuming major news outlets because their job is to sell my eyeballs to the highest bidder.

The same logic is applicable to news headlines. I purposely avoid consuming major news outlets because their job is to sell my eyeballs to the highest bidder. If I instead focus on learning about the most significant events starting at N years in the past and going backwards, I’m much more likely to be learning about only those events that history has judged to be historically significant. There’s a saying that “You always read about the one plane that crashes, not the millions that land safely.” The job of news media is to shock, awe, and transfix the public for the benefit of the shareholders. My bet / hope is that authors of history books don’t operate under the same economic model. Jeff Bezos admonishes his employees to focus on the things about society and human nature which don’t change, rather than the things which do change, if they hope to move the needle at Amazon. I feel like that advice is broadly applicable to the public and those who are generally civic-minded, not just those who want to succeed in business.