The Power of Regret
A review of

The Power of Regret

How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward

Daniel H Pink • Riverhead • 2022
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To Regret Is Human

by Patricia Sanders

Best-selling author and psychologist Daniel H. Pink delivers an engaging and thought-provoking exploration of regret. Everyone experiences this deeply human – and profoundly painful – emotion; Pink makes an intriguing case for regret as a force for good.

Most Americans don’t handle regret well. Positive thinking, a forward-looking culture and an almost compulsive sense of innocence have fueled economic progress and technological innovation – but these traits also contribute to Americans’ deep discomfort with negative emotions. Don’t look back, don’t dwell, don’t wallow.

In recent years, however, Black Lives Matter and other social justice movements have impelled many Americans to reckon with the sins of the past – both societal and personal. Amid this changing moral landscape, a refusal to examine your own ill-advised past choices begins to sound conscienceless.

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