Shortsightedness has become an epidemic
Pet peeve about language use:<p>I thought it was obvious that short-sightedness (Exclusively Short term thinking) is an epidemic, nobody on Wall Street can see past the next Quarter's numbers. I don't need the economist to point that out.<p>Nearsightedness is what this article is about... a completely different thing. I've dealt with that my entire life... and just went through the knock-on effect of retina detachment, and surgery to correct the same. Having a bubble of C3F8 gas in your one good eye is pretty damned effective at taking you out of commission for about 4 months. Looking down hurts!  I hope to be up and about, and able to drive again by the start of September, once the bubble has gone, my eye has stabilized, the surgeon has made a final check, and finally after I get new glasses.<p>I strongly suspect the amount of light outdoors is NOT really the issue. If you're always focused on things close at hand (as the above mentioned folks on wall street), you never allow the eyes to focus on the far horizon for an appreciable fraction of the time.<p>I'm surprised to learn that there's no consensus on how the eye actually focuses on objects at various distances[1]. It is also well know that the smaller an iris in a camera (or eye), the larger the range of distances that appear in focus. It seems reasonable to me that if you spend your time looking at only nearby objects (like above mentioned Wall Street residents), you'll lose the ability to see things further out that might be coming to get you.<p>[1] - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accommodation_(eye)" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accommodation_(eye)</a>