Myopia is the medical term for nearsightedness, a condition where you can see things clearly when they're close to you but distant objects look blurry. If you have myopia, you might be able to read a book just fine but struggle to see the whiteboard from the back of the classroom. Glasses or contact lenses help by bending light in a way that brings distant things back into focus.

About one in three people have some degree of myopia, making it one of the most common vision problems.

The word also describes a kind of mental shortsightedness. Someone showing myopia in their thinking focuses only on immediate concerns while ignoring bigger, longer-term consequences. A student might display myopia by playing video games instead of studying, seeing only tonight's fun and missing how it affects tomorrow's test. A business leader shows myopia by cutting important programs to save money this year, not realizing it will hurt the company next year. When we call someone's thinking myopic, we mean they're not looking far enough ahead to see what's coming.