According to Wikipedia, Epimetheus was responsible for giving a positive trait to every animal, but when it was time to give man a positive trait, there was nothing left. His brother Prometheus then stole fire from Zeus and gave it to man. As punishment, Zeus created Pandora for Epimetheus, knowing that he would fall in love with her despite the warnings of his more intelligent brother, who told him never to accept a gift from the Olympian gods ("Prometheus" means "foresight"). Epimetheus and Pandora were married.

Pandora had been given a box by Hermes and was instructed never to open it. However, Hermes also gave her curiosity, and she opened it anyway releasing all the misfortunes of mankind. She shut it in time to keep one thing in the box: foreboding. Thus mankind always has hope in times of evil.

A WORD OF CAUTION:

Hindsight should not to confused with presentism, a mode of historical analysis in which contemporary moral standards are applied to historical figures. Here at the Hindsight Institute, we specialize in analyzing recent events and the causal effects of insignificant individuals.

MODERN USAGE OF HINDSIGHT

Many organizations currently engage in Hindsight strategies:

The University of Hull agrees that hindsight principles are useful in suicide prevention

Premier investment journal Money Management recommends the use of hindsight as a key component in portfolio investment.

Alan Greenspan, in his capacity of Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, cited hindsight in his testimony on the state of the banking industry.

In Ecology, the USDA, along with many other environmental protection agencies, are relying on hindsight for their forward planning.

Crime prevention also relies heavily on hindsight. Even the CIA recognizes the importance of hindsight.

In the arts and the sciences, hindsight has been at the leading edge of many advances.

Of course, in politics hindsight has always been a guiding principle.