Show HN: I built a directory about big life decisions/regrets

Hi,

A question others often ask me when I'm struggling with a decision is "will you regret it?"

And that simple paradigm can make the answer clear.

But sometimes, I'm not sure. Sometimes, it seems like the options are equivalent – 6 one, half a dozen the other.

That got me curious about what other decisions people have made and whether they regret those decisions and why.

So, I made Did You Regret It – a directory of big life decisions and whether people regretted them, including their reasoning.

It might not actually help you make a huge life decision, but it's interesting to hear other people's stories in little bite-sized pieces.

Interesting! You should consider making the email field optional: it’s unclear why it’s required, and maybe folks will be more comfortable sharing if it is optional.

Went in expecting something different. Would be great if it wasn’t simple yes no

As Kierkegaard noted, you will regret it either way.

This misses a lot of nuance. The decisions are yes/no on regret and an extremely short reason. These aren't going to help others make reasoned decisions about things. You can't really help with that anyway, because you're just setting someone up to write in the future "I wanted X but I read about someone else who regretted it. But now I regret not doing it because I'm not them."

For example, I once quit my salaried job to work as a contractor for a start-up, making up the money shortfall with other contract work. I regretted it quite quickly because my calculations on making up that money were off the mark, and my wife started to get pissed off about it. But it led through an interesting experience and cumulated in finding a job that has been so good to me and has paid so much more. So I think it was the best path I could have taken, and I shouldn't regret it at all, it has changed our family life. However, I still have regret because my wife doesn't see the causal relationship between my mistake and 9 months later having that opportunity, so it was a source of tension between us for much longer.

I could write similar stories about many things, like going to uni, having kids, moving country. The experience, the aftermath, and the effects much further down the line.