"You know, I should have started learning languages when I was a lot younger.
That was back when dinosaurs ruled the Earth.
Oh, well, you know what they say, hindsight is 20/20."
Before we begin to understand this idiom, it will help to understand what 20/20 means
and what it has to do with 'sight' or vision.
If you have twenty-twenty vision it means you can see clearly.
You have what is considered normal vision as measured by an eye test given by an optometrist
or ophthalmologist.
Although today optometrists use special devices to measure our eye-sight, they used to use
wall charts with rows of letters that became smaller as you reached the bottom of the chart.
The lower the text you were able to read, the better your vision.
In 20/20 vision, the first twenty refers to the distance in feet from the eye-test chart
and the second twenty refers to the line that a person with average vision can read from
that distance.
In countries where meters are used instead of feet, this may be 6/6 vision.
20/20 is not perfect vision, as it often believed.
It's average or 'normal' vision.
In reality, only about 35% of people have this vision.
It is actually possible to have better than twenty-twenty vision.
For example, you could have twenty-fifteen vision, meaning you could read a line on the
eye chart from 20 feet away that an average person could only read from fifteen feet away.
If you have worse than 20/20 vision, such as 20/30, it means that from 20 feet away
you can only read letters that most people can read from 30 feet away.
This method of measuring vision was developed during the 1860s.
Now, we can get to the meaning of the idiom.
Meaning of Idiom: Hindsight is 20/20
Also used: 20/20 hindsight, and hindsight is always 20/20
While you might not have 20/20 sight or vision, everyone has 20/20 hindsight.
In English, hindsight means the ability to understand an event or situation after it
has happened; to have clarity on the reasons something happened because it has already
happened and the reasons are easy to see after the fact.
We often talk about the 'benefit of hindsight.'
Hindsight is 20/20 is an allusion to this benefit.
So, hindsight is 20/20 means that it is easy to perfectly and clearly see what should have
been done or said in the past.
Since we are looking back on what has already occurred, the reasons it occurred are crystal
clear even though when those events were unfolding we could not see these reasons and we were
confused or unclear about what to do.
In other words, it's easy to understand why things happened and what we should have done
after they have already happened.
Therefore, hindsight is 20/20.
It is important to understand the intent of this idiom.
In other words, what are we trying to say when we use it?
It is not intended to reference the value of hindsight, but to point out that nobody
can predict the future while anyone can look back on past events with perfect clarity.
We cannot always know the consequences of our choices but after those consequences have
occurred, they may seem obvious and inevitable.
So, there is no point in blaming yourself, for example, for things you failed to do just
because those things now seem so clear.
A related idiom is Monday-morning quarterback.
A Monday morning quarterback is a person who dissects an event and tells others how it
should have been dealt with after the event has happened.
This person has the benefit of hindsight and already knowing what decisions were made and
what outcomes occurred.
So, a Monday morning quarterback is “wise after the fact.”
Football fans, of course, may be Mondy morning quarterbacks, and love to discuss what plays
should have been called, etc. after a game has already been won or lost.
In this way, they are similar to armchair quarterbacks, but only after the fact.
For a Monday-morning quarterback, “hindsight is twenty-twenty.”
Examples Of How to Use Hindsight is 20/20 In a Sentence:
"I shouldn't have opened a business with a relative.
Oh, well, hindsight is 20/20."
"Hindsight being 20/20, I would have done things differently in my youth."
"I know hindsight is always 20/20 but if I could do things over I wouldn't have stopped
playing music."
Origin Of Idiom:
Since the Snellen vision testing chart was developed during the 1860s this idiom must
have occurred sometime after.
The earliest known examples in print date from 1949 and 1951.