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What would be a phrase or an idiom for a situation where somebody spent too much time looking at something or thinking about something or otherwise spent too much time on a problem or in certain context, and as a result can miss a possible error or detail, which is can otherwise be immediately apparent when someone else takes a fresh look.

The original idiom I'm looking for is a Russian "глаз замылился", literally "to have a soapy eye".

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I am not sure there is a stock phrase in English that exactly captures the nuances of the Russian phrase (primarily because I do not know Russian).

Two phrases come to mind

too close to the situation

needs a fresh eye

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  • Apologies for dumping a Russian phrase into ths S.E.! The context is more or less that having spent too much effort on something makes eyes "not fresh", as it were. So an inverse question could be : I worked on <a thing> so long that it now needs a fresh eye, how do I describe the state of my eyes?
    – ev-br
    Commented Nov 6, 2022 at 15:07
  • Upon reflection, I think the better of my suggestions is “needs a fresh eye.” The opposite would be “My eyes are so tired from looking at this all day that I no longer can see what is right under my nose. It needs a fresh pair of eyes.”
    – Jeff Morrow
    Commented Nov 6, 2022 at 15:20
  • Hopefully a last clarification: which of these two phrases carries better a nuance of not just being tired of looking at this all day, but rather my thinking about this topic might be too rigid or too cliche because I spent too much time in-context and cannot see the situation from a non-standard angle anymore?
    – ev-br
    Commented Nov 6, 2022 at 16:32
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    "Tired eyes" may imply only physical fatigue. "Needs fresh eyes" is seldom used to describe anything other than a mental rigidity imposed by excessive concentration, a type of mental fatigue that I have often experienced. Another phrase sometimes used is "I need to look at this again in the light of a new day," but this loses any explicit reference to eyes.
    – Jeff Morrow
    Commented Nov 6, 2022 at 16:50
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One common English expression for such circumstances is "s/he can't see the wood for the trees."

That is also used for when a situation is such that many people would not notice one instance of something because of a preponderance of others.

Another which can fit is "s/he can't see for looking".

Plus, of course, those in Jeff's answer.

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  • Thanks! Not seeing the wood for the trees feels a bit more general --- please correct me if I'm blindly transferring the Russian meaning of the analog phrase --- as not seeing the wood for the trees can be due to a variety of reasons: being naive or inexperienced, having a character trait of lacking a broader vision etc. Your other example --- again, please correct me if I'm misreading --- the first example in wordsense.eu/not_see_for_looking seems to imply focussing on the past as a reason?
    – ev-br
    Commented Nov 6, 2022 at 15:04
  • I too considered the phrase “not seeing the forest for the trees,” but rejected it as not quite apt. It’s thrust is “to miss the real meaning in a mass of detail.” That does in fact pertain to the situation you described but also many others. Upon reflection, I now think the same weakness applies to my suggestion of “to close to the situation.”
    – Jeff Morrow
    Commented Nov 6, 2022 at 15:14
  • Yes, the 'wood for trees' suggestion is not unambiguous, but would probably be so in context. e.g. "There was a perfectly simple solution but he had been working on the problem so long that he couldn't see the wood for the trees". Just something to add to your armoury.
    – PRL75
    Commented Nov 6, 2022 at 15:20
  • @PRL75 Agreed, but the longer I ruminate on this, the more I feel that “needs a fresh eye” or “needs fresh eyes” is the closest fit to the Russian original (as I understand that original).
    – Jeff Morrow
    Commented Nov 6, 2022 at 15:26
  • @JeffMorrow You may well be right. It certainly gets across the idea that someone is too tired to see what's in front of them, rather than simply unable to spot it because of the background.
    – PRL75
    Commented Nov 6, 2022 at 15:36

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