Motorcycles and myopia

One of the biggest thrills of riding a motorcycle is going through the twisties. These are the wide and sharp curves in the road that offer the rider the opportunity to lean close to the ground without losing balance.

This gravity-defying experience in motorcycle parlance is called “banking,” or in street colloquial, “benking,” and it can be an absolute blast. But it can also lead to an absolute crash. You have seen this in many motorcycle videos of Marilaque on YouTube.

The thing with twisties that makes it exciting is that you never know what is coming ahead, since you can only see the edge of the curve. The sharper the curve, the bigger the unknown.

One key mistake when riding the twisties is target fixation, which means your eyes focus on a nearby hazard like a guardrail. Because the body obeys the eye when riding, this leads to overshooting (going straight and onto the opposite lane) and in some very unfortunate cases, a motorcycle crash.

Target fixation is akin to being myopic where you are only looking at the short-term or being near-sighted. Unfortunately, this is a nasty feature of the Philippine psyche. Take the case of the Senate investigation.

One of the key discoveries in the Senate investigation into the flood control corruption was the lack of a master plan. The lack of a masterplan made it possible to insert projects that were not necessary and hard to evaluate or monitor.

We can also see myopic thinking in markets. While it could be a biased observation, in group conversations during investor conferences this year the interest was in the current issues rather than strategic ones.

This is not to say that current issues are not legit and should not be discussed but compared to conversations 10 years ago, investors may not be as interested in the value and risk of a company’s competitive strategy.

This short-termism is understandable. High interest rates that have been with us for three years are likely keeping companies focused on their business as usual (BAU) status.

Thus, questions on capital allocation and efficiency are lost when financial strategy is centered on working capital rather than long-term capital.

In other words, because money is expensive and making money is harder today, saving is preferred to investing. However, when done long enough, the saving mindset becomes the steady state and inertia sets in. Growth for the future becomes harder to drive.

Even on an individual level, myopia is present and was enhanced by the pandemic. We had a househelp earlier this year who returned to her hometown after only two months. We learned that because of the pandemic, this newly minted adult did not continue her schooling and only finished grade school.

Despite the decent pay and light working environment, she became homesick and chose to go home and be with her new partner and take on a job with less pay and longer working hours. Poorly educated and unable to envision a future, happiness is achieved on a day-to-day basis.

Myopia at varying levels is something we cannot afford to be stuck in. We need to remember that we do have a vision of the future. On a macroeconomic scale, we have the Philippine Development Plan for the window 2023-2028.

We should have a report on our progress for these goals soon. But it should not be limited to macroeconomic goals and plans. Planning is bringing the future into the present and should be done not just at the macroeconomic levels but all through the different layers of society and eventually the individual.

Seeing the future should be in everything we do. The technique in riding motorcycles is to always look for your exit when riding the twisties. Because of the sharp curves and unknowns, always look at a point well ahead of the curve, even if it cannot be seen just yet. The body obeys what your eyes see.

As you lean into curves of adversity and uncertainty, the bike will remain in balance, and as you exit the curve and right yourself, the adrenalin rush shifts into this bright and hopeful feeling as your target destination comes clearer into view.