A friend mentioned one reason why some news articles get thousands of reads.

"People like not liking."

Often we know before we begin what our take on a political event or editorial will be. But somehow we are sucked in to read it, like refolding the crease on a piece of junk mail. There are no surprises, only more exclamation points to punctuate our stance. 

One time I asked John to print something at work. I predicted that he would forget. And how about that, he did. It is not as if John has a marred memory. He can tell me any one of a hundred passages in scripture without blinking. Make that three hundred. Yet mundane tasks like popping an envelope in the mail easily slip his mind. Maybe if they had scripture on them...

Yet the shadow side of those interactions, me asking him to remember, is that I like being right about him being wrong. Disappointing to say the least. Probably you hate me now for admitting it. What possible reason could I have for collecting his mistakes like expired coupons? 

I know one thing. Ever since my friend pointed it out to me I have saved oodles of time whizzing past campaign blurbs.