# People regret more what they didn’t do than what they did - Link: https://www.andreidraganescu.info/2026/02/08/people-regret-more-what-they-didnt-do-than-what-they-did/ - Published: 2026-02-08T22:48:01+03:00 - Author: Andrei Draganescu This sentence is bullshit. Weaponized bullshit. Yet, repeated ad nauseam. People regret more what they didn’t do, than what they did? Oh, hell no. Generally, people don’t avoid doing things because they’re cowards or lazy. They avoid doing things because we built a world that _requires_ self-repression and _punishes_ self-expression. You didn’t skip the thing because you were weak. You skipped it because you couldn’t do it without paying a price you couldn’t afford. The chirp sounds wise enough to hide how deeply manipulative it is. Then the same machine that boxed you in, will repeat the line on and on and on until it fractures your head in two, a split which will make you do stupid shit and die unhappy. The life you lived vs the life you tell yourself you failed to live. That fracture is the point. A guilty person is easier to manage. A regretful person is pliable. An unhappy one keeps consuming. But “fuck the system” like the old docile punk liked to chirp – another nauseating crap. But, yeah, maybe “the system” doesn’t exist. Maybe people like repeat stupid shit because it makes them feel smart. In that case, the worst part with thinking like the quote in the title is that this is the worst way to greet your mortality! No matter _how many_ things you do, and _which_ things you do, there is always room to regret the things you didn’t do. Always. You can be the richest man in the world. The most fit. The most pretty. The smartest. All of them, all at once. There still will be things you will chose not to do. Regretting them, along with the immaculate fantasy which nostalgia will bake as garnish for the regret, is a sure way to land in death with a bad vibe. Why instead not consider otherwise: there is nothing to regret. Neither shit you did, nor shit you didn’t do. Why? Because there are only two possible things about your definite and very likely demise from this state of existence: there is something after or there is nothing after. If there is someting after, no matter what you didn’t do, it’s likely that what you did that matters more. What you did adds to the score keeping, if living is just a fun break from a higher existence. Or, definitely what you did is the potential shit destined to hit the judgement fan, if living is a fucked up test invented for some obviously incomprehensible reason. If there is nothing after, you won’t get to observe the long bucket list you checked and you won’t observe the poor record of what you “could have done” either. You are the observer and you’re gone. Nothing means nothing. All your shitty record of not bungee jumping, not being in forbes top 100, not making the cover of Time, hesitating on your destined crush only to watch Chad eventually marry, your wasting away in stupid gacha games or the time spent doom scrolling, not taking the bar exam, quitting too early, all the bad times you said yes, the excruciatingly stupid reasons for which you said no, all of this will either be gone, if there is nothing, or be opportunity for growth if there is something. No matter what is after, no regrets. That is how to die happy. But the lack of regret is not achieved by making sure there is nothing to regret! There is always something to regret! The trick is to fuck off the regret. Greet your demise with curiosity and wonder! It is what it is. No second guessing. Eyes up!