Why are there so many well-worn clichés/idioms for missing what’s right in front of us. Most of us are not idiots so why didn’t we see it coming? Biases! They blind us. Especially when ‘When we think we are so Freaking smart!!!!’ ;-) And that is going to get us all killed. We need wisdom. Not more intelligence.
1) Vision & Blindness:
“Blind as a bat” (often unfair to bats, but the point stands)
“Turning a blind eye”
“Can’t see the forest for the trees”
“Blind to the obvious”
“Sight unseen” (when used ironically)
2) Proximity & Nearness:
“Right under your nose”
“Staring you in the face”
“Hiding in plain sight”
“Missed it by a mile” (even when it was inches away)
3) Objects & Metaphors:
“Elephant in the room”
“Low-hanging fruit” (when ignored)
“The writing on the wall”
“The obvious answer” (usually said after it’s pointed out)
4) Mental & Cognitive:
“Too close to see it”
“Can’t connect the dots”
“Missing the big picture”
“Overthinking it”
“Lost in the weeds”
5) Mildly Humorous / Colloquial
“Couldn’t see it if it bit them”
“Walking past the solution”
“Face-palm obvious” (modern, but already cliché-adjacent)
THEN sometimes the hardest thing to see is the thing we’ve decided not to look for. Why do we decide not to look for it? Here’s 12 Biases that might explain this.
1. “Can’t see the forest for the trees” Bias: Attentional bias / Narrow framing: What’s happening? We over-focus on details and lose sight of system-level patterns. Common in policy, engineering, and committee work. Related research: Systems thinking failures; bounded rationality (Herbert Simon).
2. “Hiding in plain sight” Bias: Inattentional blindness What’s happening? If we’re not expecting something, we literally don’t perceive it—even when it’s visible. Classic example: The “invisible gorilla” experiment (Simons & Chabris).
3. “The elephant in the room” Bias: Pluralistic ignorance / Social conformity bias What’s happening? Everyone sees the problem, assumes others accept it, so no one speaks. Why it persists: Fear of social cost > fear of being wrong.
4. “Turning a blind eye” Bias: Motivated reasoning What’s happening: We ignore information that threatens our identity, beliefs, or interests. Key insight: This is not stupidity—it’s emotional self-defense.
5. “Right under your nose” Bias: Familiarity bias What’s happening: The closer or more familiar something is, the less we consciously evaluate it. Irony: Repetition breeds invisibility, not clarity.
6. “The writing on the wall” Bias: Normalcy bias What’s happening: We underestimate change and assume tomorrow will resemble yesterday. Seen in: Financial bubbles, climate response delays, institutional decline.
7. “Missing the big picture” Bias: Reductionism / Analysis paralysis What’s happening: Breaking problems into parts without re-integrating them into a whole. Result: Elegant answers to the wrong question.
8. “Overthinking it” Bias: Cognitive load overload What’s happening: Too much analysis crowds out insight; simple signals get buried. Related law: Hick’s Law—more options = slower decisions.
9. “Couldn’t see it if it bit them” Bias: Confirmation bias What’s happening: We actively screen out evidence that contradicts what we already “know.” Key danger: Intelligence often makes this worse, not better.
10. “Low-hanging fruit (ignored)” Bias: Effort justification bias What’s happening: We distrust easy solutions because we equate difficulty with value. Cultural note: Especially strong in expert and academic circles.
11. “Lost in the weeds” Bias: Tunnel vision What’s happening: Immediate tasks crowd out strategic thinking. Seen in: Bureaucracies, crisis management, long meetings with short agendas.
12. “Face-palm obvious” (after the fact): Bias: Hindsight bias What’s happening: Once we know the answer, we believe we “should have known it all along.” Danger: Leads to unfair blame and poor learning.
Summary: Most failures to see the obvious are not failures of intelligence, but failures of attention, incentives, and social courage. The obvious, it turns out, is often obscured by perfectly human thinking.
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