Is there a single word that means “hitting the target but missing the point”?


For example the waiting time target in a hospital can be met if enough patients are killed off quickly so freeing up beds. However hitting the waiting time target in that way is rather missing the point of healthcare!



Answer



I think one word which describes this kind of thinking is shortsighted:



lacking foresight or scope; a short view of the problem; "shortsighted policies"; "shortsighted critics derided the plan"; "myopic thinking"



In Calif. panel rejects new offshore oil drilling (2009), the situation is described in which the State Lands Commission rejected a proposal that could have led to the first new oil-drilling project off the California coast in 40 years.



...supporters...[said drilling] would benefit the region and help the cash-strapped state. Opponents, however, argued the plan was shortsighted. The vote came the day after the 40th anniversary of a massive oil spill off Santa Barbara that coated miles of beaches with oil and killed dolphins, seals and thousands of birds. The spill helped lead to the Clean Water Act and a moratorium on offshore drilling, galvanizing the modern environmental movement.



Unforesightful is a less elegant word for the same phenomenon.


Similarly, myopic, though technically a visual defect in which distant objects appear blurred, can be



lack of discernment or long-range perspective in thinking or planning



These are single words. A common idiom, though, is can't see the forest for the trees.


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