Self help books have been a thing since the advent of cheap printing. Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People" was a big thing when it came out in 1936, and it still has a following.

To be fair the first book ever printed was a self help book.

To be fair philosophy is a more stronger version of self help.

> “Your Friday Briefing,” the header ran: “Here’s what you need to know to start your day.”

There's the problem right at the top of the article: the news sites want your attention, and they want it often. How much is really so important that you need to know it right away? They're going to put n items in that message whether there were n important developments or not.

That's one of the good functions of weeklies like The Economist: they are a low pass filter. There used to be a saying that "there's nothing as useless as yesterday's paper". The first time I heard it I immediately thought, "well, then was it really that important yesterday either?

And after the n articles of their own, there are the k “articles” in the chum box that make a last ditch play for your lizard brain.