Short-term vs Long-term Thinking

The cluster focuses on critiques of short-term thinking in decisions, contrasting it with the need for long-term perspectives, often noting how people overestimate short-term impacts and underestimate long-term consequences.

📉 Falling 0.5x Politics & Society
3,375
Comments
20
Years Active
5
Top Authors
#5560
Topic ID

Activity Over Time

2007
4
2008
13
2009
37
2010
55
2011
79
2012
63
2013
101
2014
88
2015
102
2016
154
2017
176
2018
204
2019
261
2020
311
2021
331
2022
397
2023
366
2024
264
2025
343
2026
26

Keywords

OP HN IMO PG i.e VC term long term short term short thinking consequences overestimating think long underestimating efficiency

Sample Comments

rob_c • Aug 15, 2022 • View on HN

how is that not long term thinking?

dkopi • Mar 21, 2016 • View on HN

Optimizing for the short term may not give the best results in the long term.

hfkldjsjfkdj • Dec 14, 2020 • View on HN

People don't like to think long term.

john_moscow • Aug 30, 2018 • View on HN

Long-term thinking feels like a lost art nowadays...

reitzensteinm • Aug 7, 2015 • View on HN

IMO, it's just another instance of overestimating impact in the short term and underestimating in the long.

omginternets • May 2, 2017 • View on HN

You're arguing short-term consequences whereas the parent comment is arguing long-term consequences.

dbalatero • Mar 22, 2024 • View on HN

Long-term thinking isn't super trendy, or even incentivized maybe?

netizen-936824 • Jan 18, 2022 • View on HN

Why is it not good in the long term?

olyjohn • Dec 14, 2025 • View on HN

That requires long term thinking. Which nobody does anymore.

tux1968 • Feb 18, 2016 • View on HN

Whatever the answer to your question, that's very short term thinking to a longer term issue.