Would’ve, could’ve, should’ve : The purpose of regret

Everyone feels it, and wishes they didn’t. We're more likely to regret things we didn’t do or didn’t say. What is its purpose, this gnawing feeling? Take a look

On an April morning in 1888, Alfred Nobel opened a newspaper to find his obituary staring back at him.

(Adobe Stock)

The French press service had got it wrong; it was his brother, the Swedish engineer Ludvig Nobel, who had died. But what was undoubtedly worse than the error was what they had to say about Alfred.

The obituary referred to the chemist as a “merchant of death”, because of his invention of dynamite. His explosive had changed the world for the