Learn English – word, phrase or idiom for “a person who is incapable of thinking about the future”

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I need a word/ phrase/ idiom to describe a (real) person who is always living in the past and present, but is incapable of thinking about the future. He has often been criticized by someone for being unable to think ahead or make long range plans.

He is a close friend, and told me himself that he has vague anxieties and fears about various things in the future and is also quite capable of vividly grasping past and present situations, but cannot constructively or even literally conceive of what is yet to happen, and considers only the past and present as concrete realities.

Other people I know can actually visualise where they will be (in terms of what they want to achieve) 5 or even 10 years later but the future appears so nebulous and unreal to this person that he cannot imagine what his life could be like a year hence or even 2 months into the future.

Qualifications of meaning, and research already done:

  1. I have considered and discarded phrases like 'short term planning' and 'living in the present' as not really expressing the right meaning here.

  2. I would also rule out elements of heedlessness/ recklessness or lacking foresight (as kindly suggested by @aparente001 in a comment), or the inability to understand potential outcomes of policies or actions. My friend can actually reckon the consequences of actions and is a very cautious person.

  3. Note too that words literally meaning "inability to visualise" such as 'unimaginative' do not fit the case because he can actually visualise in vivid detail various things such as for example a plywood cabinet he proposes to make, and also project all possible future outcomes of a certain logical problem, but simply can't visualise the shape of future life to come. Words that imply an inability to visualise may be suitable as metaphors.

  4. It is not a cognitive or psychological impairment or disorder in his case, but words or phrases indicative of such disorders might possibly be used as metaphorical descriptors here.

Example sentence:

Jack cannot make any long range plans because he is incapable of thinking about the future: he is __________ (adjective) // he is a ____________ (noun) // it is a case of ___________ (expression/idiom)

Is there a good word/ phrase/ idiom to describe such a person? It can be an adjective, noun or allegory.

Best Answer

The inability to take account of the future and the reality of future responsibilities is described by the adjective improvident.

Improvident 1. Lacking or not exercising foresight; having little regard for the future; heedless of potential consequences or outcomes; reckless. Also: characterized by recklessness or a lack of foresight.

OED-3

2013 Sunday Tel. (Nexis) 7 Apr. (Features section) 21 He was charming but improvident, died with astonishing debts and..was impoverished.

OED-3

Mel B fortune squandered by 'improvident' choices, divorce hearing told

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