Remorseful Retrospect: 50 Stories of Profound Regret

The inventor of the USB, Ajay Bhatt, had originally intended for it to be flippable; however, that idea was scrapped due to the extra cost it would incur. Despite USB becoming the standard, he still regrets that decision. "In hindsight, we blew it," he said.

2. Actor Stephen Baldwin has a tattoo on his left shoulder of "HM," which is the initials for Hannah Montana. He got it because Miley Cyrus told him he could cameo on the show if he had the initials tattooed on his body. He was never given the opportunity to cameo and now regrets getting the tattoo.

3. Steve Jobs could have avoided premature death from cancer by having it properly treated. He refused it for nine months, believing an alternative-medicine diet would be better. It was one of Steve Jobs' most notable regrets.

4. Sir Alec Guinness hated his role as Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars: "Apart from the money, I regret having embarked on the film," calling the dialog "lamentable." An autograph seeker told him he'd seen the movie over 100 times; he gave him an autograph on the condition he never saw the movie again.

5. John Sylvan, the man who invented the K-Cup coffee pods, doesn't own a single-serve coffee machine. He said, "They're kind of expensive to use, plus it's not like drip coffee is tough to make." He regrets inventing them due to the waste they make.

American singer Tina Turner was diagnosed with kidney failure after she opted to take homeopathic remedies instead of the high blood pressure medication her physicians recommended, a decision that she later regretted. She was considering assisted suicide until her husband donated a kidney to her, saving her life.

7. Breaking Bad's showrunner Vince Gilligan strongly regretted introducing the machine gun to the last season of the series and found writing a convincing explanation for it so difficult that he nearly abandoned the plot device out of frustration.

8. The "Five stages of grief" model has no factual or scientific basis, and its creator, Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, said that the stages are not a linear and predictable progression. She regretted writing them in a way that was misunderstood.

9. Bill Burr, the author of an influential guide to computer passwords, the NIST manual on passwords, that recommended password changes every 90 days, regrets doing so. Mandatory password changes at a scheduled interval are no longer recommended by NIST.

10. Beck rejected Weird Al's request to parody his hit 1990s song "Loser" because Beck felt he already wasn't being taken seriously as an artist. Later, though, Beck regretted this decision, saying, "I think it would have been an amazing video. I'm actually really sad it didn't happen."

Oliver Sipple, who rescued then-President Gerald Ford from an assassin, later regretted saving the president after the press outed him as gay, his family rejected him, and he ultimately passed away.

12. Peter Benchley regretted writing JAWS. Later in life, he became an ocean activist and wrote books advocating shark conservation.

13. Coolio regretted giving Weird Al a hard time about "Amish Paradise" and feels "that was one of the dumbest things I did in my career."

14. During the filming of Taxi Driver, Robert De Niro asked Cybill Shepherd out on a date. She turned him down, and he did not speak to her, except in character, for the rest of the filming. She later said that she regretted turning him down.

15. The Japanese pilot who attacked a town in Oregon during World War II returned years later to present his family's 400-year-old samurai sword to the city as a symbol of regret.

The inventor of the web, Tim Berners-Lee, has one regret: adding the double slash // to URLs. In retrospect, he says it was totally unnecessary.

17. Jack Valenti, the President of the MPAA, regretted giving South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut an R rating, wishing to have labeled it with the NC-17 rating.

18. Henry de Bohun was a brave knight who thought he could kill Robert the Bruce (1274-1329) on the open field because the King of Scots was armed only with an axe. Robert later regretted the incident because he broke his favorite axe, splitting Henry's head.

19. Anna Jarvis originally created Mother's Day to honor mothers who had passed away, but later regretted doing so due to what it had since developed into.

20. Dave Chappelle was originally offered the role of Bubba in Forest Gump but turned it down, a decision he later regretted.

Mikhail Kalishnikov, inventor of the AK-47, greatly regretted having invented the weapon and is quoted as saying, "I would prefer to have invented a machine that people could use and that would help farmers with their work-for example, a lawnmower."

22. Originally, the role of Buzz Lightyear was to go to actor Billy Crystal. His regret for turning it down led to him being cast as Mike Wazowski.

23. Wally Conron, the individual credited with sparking the trend for "designer" dogs by introducing the "labradoodle" breed, now expresses remorse for bringing the breed into existence.

24. Ben Affleck was disappointed by Daredevil, calling it the only movie he actually regrets doing.

25. Wendy's founder, Dave Thomas, regretted using his daughter's name. Not long before he died, he told his daughter, "I should've just named it after myself because it put a lot of pressure on you."