Trying to get a PhD. I wasn’t a good student and I didn’t choose a good advisor. I spent the better pet of a decade trying to finish and failed. I ended up unemployed and divorced in large part because of that decision, and while my life is OK now, I can’t help but regret that little decision that lead to so much personal pain and suffering.
Ask HN: What's Your Biggest Regret?
151–160 of 570 posts
Re: Ask HN: What's Your Biggest Regret?
#152I've longed to kill myself for as far back as I can remember and I regret not having done so already.
If I could change anything in history, I would chose to have never been born at all.
Re: Ask HN: What's Your Biggest Regret?
#153Focused too much on making a living in my teens and 20s instead of college and social life. Never pursued artistic interests seriously because I was just too tired from working and stressing out about bills. Now I’m in my 30s with next to no social life and the realization that I’ve wasted away my time and whatever little talent I have. There’s a “regret” folder sitting in my Google Drive with two half-finished books…
>Focused too much on making a living in my teens and 20s instead of college and social life. Never pursued artistic interests seriously because I was just too tired from working and stressing out about bills.
Sounds like you are me. I worked tons, paid off my house. Got my retirement fund way up. Lots went well; but obviously came at a cost of other things.
>There’s a “regret” folder sitting in my Google Drive with two half-finished books and at least half a dozen songs I was too chickenshit to finish and release out in the wild.
Andy Weir was in his 40s when he finished his 3rd book and managed to get it published. Now he's a contemporary scifi leader.
Personally managed to finish writing 3 books but I'm too chickenshit to actually try to get them published. I'm a tech, not a writer and I'm not expecting they are any good.
>I reckon it’s still not too late, but something tells me that it is…
Nope, not at all too late. You have decades to get back to those.
Re: Ask HN: What's Your Biggest Regret?
#154My mother was an irrational unreasonable prying crazy nightmare who was incredibly negative and hated anyone disagreeing with her about any trivial thing. My biggest regret is that I allowed her to order me to go to the nearest university and continue to live with her. She had drained me of all confidence and was hostile to signs of me being an independent adult. Getting away from her years earlier would have been mu…
I lived through the same experience. If you ever figure out this problem (which you clearly have), you have nothing to regret. Not everyone does.
Re: Ask HN: What's Your Biggest Regret?
#155Focused too much on making a living in my teens and 20s instead of college and social life. Never pursued artistic interests seriously because I was just too tired from working and stressing out about bills. Now I’m in my 30s with next to no social life and the realization that I’ve wasted away my time and whatever little talent I have. There’s a “regret” folder sitting in my Google Drive with two half-finished books…
When every someone says it's too late in life to do something, I like to remind them that Toussaint L'Overture (a former slave) [1] was almost 50 when he led one of the most successful slave rebellions, defeating all of the colonial powers at the time (France, Spain and UK) and laying the ground work for the first independent black state in Carribean.
Just a nice example that it ain't too late.
Re: Ask HN: What's Your Biggest Regret?
#156I let a divorce ruin me mentally during a pivotal year of my company. Had a rough valuation of ~100MM and blew my top 3 market position because I let my ex convince me that it was all my fault that our relationship failed. In reality she was just struggling with being gay. I stopped paying attention at work for about 18 months in an attempt to “save my family” but I just ended up losing everything. Oh well.
Been there, employee #12 in 2016 at startup that created one of top ten cryptocurrencies. Was not crypto nut, I worked in research, friend gave me a gig. Disposed all crypto assets a few months before 2017 peak, bcos wanted simple divorce. Friends were telling me to convert everything to coins and run into Thailand LOL.
You sold at a not so bad time then. The "mistake" was to not reinvest at the 2019 lows.
Re: Ask HN: What's Your Biggest Regret?
#157Not going to university and not moving to the valley from a flyover state in 2000
Re: Ask HN: What's Your Biggest Regret?
#158Nothing. Free will doesn’t exist so I just accept what comes my way and naively trust the universe not to be too much of a d$&#. Hopefully that gets me to the finish line.
Re: Ask HN: What's Your Biggest Regret?
#159Half joking, but I was young and had the money, but didn't pull the trigger on buying 10k of AAPL when it was less than $1.
It was such a low risk proposition at that time in my life.
Re: Ask HN: What's Your Biggest Regret?
#160While at a house party during summer break while in college, my summer-time girlfriend and a girl I had dated in high school started making out and I was so surprised about it that I missed an opportunity for a threesome. I later talked about it with them and they admitted that they were thinking about it and would have done it if I had suggested it. Can't tell you how many times I've regretted not acting that night.
Love the honesty.