Without deliberate effort, people tend to perceive history as logarithmic because they see the recent past more clearly than the distant past.

“He's got a problem that I think most of us have when we look at history,”

“you know, unless you work really hard, history looks sort of logarithmic.”

“Right. You've got this clearer view of what's been happening in the recent past, and then the more distant past is more distant. And so you can't see it as well.”

“And so you end up with this sort of, you know, logarithmic view of the past.”