Funny thing about regrets
Within reason, I’ve often felt it better to regret something I have done as opposed to something I haven’t done. Turns out, it’s a good philosophy:
The older we get, the more we regret choosing virtue over vice, new research shows.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some hobos to kill and your wife to sleep with.
August 2nd, 2006 at 1:07 am
Based on that sort of Advice, I moved to Knoxville, and again based on that sort of advice, here I am in New Hampshire.
I think they’re right.
August 2nd, 2006 at 3:07 am
we (by which I mean you, not us)… as phrased by the Dragon in Grendel would have been a better way to say we. The older I get, the more I regret the stupid things I’ve done, and none of the vice I supposedly missed out on. Vice gets old and boring fast, and then what do you have?
Kivetz and Keinan added the element of time, showing that regret in the long term is actually minimized by doing the opposite, discarding self-control and yielding to temptation.
Sounds like a fool’s philosophy. On the other hand, enjoying things you’ve earned, provided they are not actual vice, is never a problem, least ways that’s how I see it.
August 2nd, 2006 at 10:29 am
Christopher Hitchens once said that “regret is for people with whom one did not sleep with; remorse is for those with whom one did.”
I think that’s a very good distinction.
August 2nd, 2006 at 1:48 pm
Uncle, you may want to re-read that article before you head down to the bowery. The examples they give are eating dessert and taking a vacation, which are only vices if you have buckles on your shoes.