The Grammarist website describes the saying like this: “hindsight is 20/20 is usually said in answer to an admonishment that the person should have known something would happen, or that the person made a bad decision.”

Where did the saying hindsight is 2020 come from?

Origin of Hindsight is 20 20

This expression comes from the way people describe good vision. A person with normal, good vision has 20/20 sight. Hindsight is an understanding of a past event. The exact origin is unclear, but it likely began sometime around the mid-1900s.

Who said hindsight 2020?

“Hindsight is 20/20”? The earliest I have found for this one is in the Van Nuys (Cal.) News, Feb. 17, 1949, where “Most people's hindsight is 20-20” was attributed to humorist Richard Armour.