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by bbq 3865 days ago
Can you point me to any historical titans of industry who regret their life's work?
4 comments

This guy once gave at talk at my university where he said he regretted not doing a lot of things because he was working and now he was too old to do them because of his health.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seymour_Schulich

He sounds like someone who would give a great talk. I can see that happening for sure. I've devoted my life to a lot less before realizing there was more out there. These people put so much time into their work there's little left for a broad life - unless you make some clear boundaries like Mark is doing now. Maybe this will be a one time thing and, as you suggest, he may regret not making more time for other areas of his life. Maybe he'll manage to carve out more time for himself.
His book "Get Smarter" is a pretty amusing read, too.
I don't buy regret. From what I've read so far, people who worked too much regret not doing things with family, etc. and people who lived bog-standard GenPop family life regret that their life had no meaning. So I guess death is just one big paradox of choice.
Didn't you ever watch the end of "There Will Be Blood"?
Did you?
Comparing an "ad man" to a "historical titan of industry" sounds a bit fishy to me. Now, if we were talking about Elon Musk, I'd agree!