Regrets are a funny thing. We did what we did because we lacked the help of "hindsight" which we have now. In that context, it's far too easy to end up criticizing ourselves. As for me, I prefer to not regret, but just learn from my past.
Ask HN: What are your regrets?
11–20 of 72 posts
Re: Ask HN: What are your regrets?
#12That I did not become proficient in programming during my undergrad in EE and CE
About the things that I did not regret is the bold decision to come to the States for PhD: I did not regret that for a second
Re: Ask HN: What are your regrets?
#13No reason to regret anything, as I see it. I am the culmination of my 24 short years of experience. Without my experiences, good, bad or indifferent, I wouldn't be the person I am today. And I like that person.
Re: Ask HN: What are your regrets?
#14Every cute girl I don't talk to on the street that catches my eye. Thats a regret.
Everything to date I am happy about, no reason to complain.
Re: Ask HN: What are your regrets?
#15I've loved 2 wonderful women over the last 9 years since high school, but missed out on ever being single and all that entails (one night stands, etc). I just hope that doesn't haunt me when I'm middle aged.
Re: Ask HN: What are your regrets?
#16Hmm, where shall I begin?
I turned down an offer of admission from MIT. Granted, I had my reasons, and had I accepted, there's an inappropriately high probability I would've had to discontinue halfway through. I guess what I really regret is letting circumstances reach that point.
What I really regret is things I didn't do. The girls I should have asked out. The musical instrument I didn't learn to play. I honestly wish I'd made more clear mistakes in high school, instead of constantly playing it safe and thereby skipping important life lessons.
I regret spending so much of my life in front of the computer. Indeed, the hacking skills I developed will help me when launching, but the social skills I didn't develop will kill me. One of my worst fears is that I will get pigeonholed into a being a backroom programmer, and this fear influences everything from my cofounder search to my current distribution of time.
On the flip side, what I regret from the past might not be so regrettable when I consider that I'm not making the same mistakes right now. It goes back to my hypothesis that what I should regret are the mistakes that I didn't make when I was younger, because I may have to make them when the stakes are higher.
Re: Ask HN: What are your regrets?
#17This is more of a public journal entry than anything, but I honestly don't regret anything. I only dated one girl before the girl who I married, I'm about to have a kid, I've worked with a ridiculous amount of great companies, I had a semi-nerdy time in school, and none of it has given me any regrets.
There's been times when I've been burned, but most of the time it was from me reaching too high for a position which I wasn't yet ready for. When I failed, it hurt really badly at the time, and I had a lot of regrets then, but now I can say it's been the best failure I've ever had.
Re: Ask HN: What are your regrets?
#18Believing for so long that I needed someone's money to build something.
After being unemployed for a little over 3 months earlier this year, I built a product on my own (instead of going for the safe job option, and taking the huge of risk of, you know, running out of food money) and managed to get it acquired by a media company here in Sao Paulo.
And that was quite possibly greatest lesson of my life.
Take risks. It pays off.
Re: Ask HN: What are your regrets?
#19Nothing major. But currently I am seriously regretting my decision to buy an iPhone instead of android.
How come?
Re: Ask HN: What are your regrets?
#20I regret all the times I was afraid of doing something.