Daniel Pink

And when I came back home to Washington, D.C., where I live, this is a moment where I was thinking a lot about regret. I realized it's like, oh, my God, I don't want to talk about this with anybody because nobody wants to talk about regret. And I sheepishly mentioned my regrets to a few people. And I discovered that everybody wanted to talk about it.

And when I came back home to Washington, D.C., where I live, this is a moment where I was thinking a lot about regret. I realized it's like, oh, my God, I don't want to talk about this with anybody because nobody wants to talk about regret. And I sheepishly mentioned my regrets to a few people. And I discovered that everybody wanted to talk about it.

That once I brought up regrets, it just uncorked this need that other people had. And that's a very interesting reaction when you're a writer. And so I decided that I would actually threw away a book that I was working on and then wrote an entirely new proposal for a book about regret.

That once I brought up regrets, it just uncorked this need that other people had. And that's a very interesting reaction when you're a writer. And so I decided that I would actually threw away a book that I was working on and then wrote an entirely new proposal for a book about regret.

This is the closest thing I have to a moment where I was going one way and I reached that moment and then went the other way.

This is the closest thing I have to a moment where I was going one way and I reached that moment and then went the other way.

I mean, I think so. There are differences among regrets on a number of different dimensions. I do think that what you're talking about there is a difference between sort of retrospective regrets and prospective regrets. So, you know, if you look retrospectively, you shouldn't regret every mistake that you made. You'll drive yourself crazy.

I mean, I think so. There are differences among regrets on a number of different dimensions. I do think that what you're talking about there is a difference between sort of retrospective regrets and prospective regrets. So, you know, if you look retrospectively, you shouldn't regret every mistake that you made. You'll drive yourself crazy.

And I think one of the discoveries is that a lot of the decisions we make don't really matter all that much. And then there's certain kinds of regrets that people have that are not massive, that are small. They can make peace with them. They don't really bug people. When you're thinking about the end of your life and getting there without deep regrets, I think that's a different kind of reasoning.

And I think one of the discoveries is that a lot of the decisions we make don't really matter all that much. And then there's certain kinds of regrets that people have that are not massive, that are small. They can make peace with them. They don't really bug people. When you're thinking about the end of your life and getting there without deep regrets, I think that's a different kind of reasoning.

And I think it can be healthy, but it has to be done in the right way. So it depends on whether you look backward. If you're looking backward and scrutinizing your choices of what you did or didn't do, that's one thing. If you're looking forward and trying to avoid future regrets, that's something else.

And I think it can be healthy, but it has to be done in the right way. So it depends on whether you look backward. If you're looking backward and scrutinizing your choices of what you did or didn't do, that's one thing. If you're looking forward and trying to avoid future regrets, that's something else.

Let me just show my work here a little bit. So to write this book, what I did was I looked at, there's a lot of good research on regret and multidisciplinary research. Again, a lot of it in social psychology actually started out in almost like political science, political economy, national security studies. There's a lot in economics.

Let me just show my work here a little bit. So to write this book, what I did was I looked at, there's a lot of good research on regret and multidisciplinary research. Again, a lot of it in social psychology actually started out in almost like political science, political economy, national security studies. There's a lot in economics.

There's a lot now in psychology and social psychology, but there's also a lot in neuroscience and cognitive science. And so looked at what is 50 years of research tell us about this emotion of regret. Then I also did a very large quantitative survey, basically a very large public opinion poll, the largest public opinion poll ever. Well, I did two things.

There's a lot now in psychology and social psychology, but there's also a lot in neuroscience and cognitive science. And so looked at what is 50 years of research tell us about this emotion of regret. Then I also did a very large quantitative survey, basically a very large public opinion poll, the largest public opinion poll ever. Well, I did two things.

I did a quantitative poll of the largest public opinion survey ever conducted of American attitudes about regret. And then I collected regrets from around the world. And that proved to be really revelatory because we have this database now of 26,000 regrets from people in 134 countries.

I did a quantitative poll of the largest public opinion survey ever conducted of American attitudes about regret. And then I collected regrets from around the world. And that proved to be really revelatory because we have this database now of 26,000 regrets from people in 134 countries.

And what it says, to answer your question again, in my typically roundabout way, is that yes, indeed, Alana, there are, we did find that around the world, there are four types of regret. There are foundation regrets, which are decisions that people make, smallish decisions that people make early in life that accumulate. They're not devastating up front, but that accumulate to bad consequences.

And what it says, to answer your question again, in my typically roundabout way, is that yes, indeed, Alana, there are, we did find that around the world, there are four types of regret. There are foundation regrets, which are decisions that people make, smallish decisions that people make early in life that accumulate. They're not devastating up front, but that accumulate to bad consequences.