I wonder a few things about this... 1) Is it a given that our regrets, when death is close, are wiser than the choices we made when death seemed further away?

I wonder a few things about this... 1) Is it a given that our regrets, when death is close, are wiser than the choices we made when death seemed further away? We clearly choose to do things like move away from our family and friends, to follow spouses, chase careers, have different lifestyles. And that keeps us occupied for decades. If we chose to do none of that, or less of it, would be feel like we were in a rut all our lives? Maybe you'd still feel alone when you were dying, because you never set out in the world to find people who really understood you. Maybe you always feel alone when you're dying and there's nothing you can do about it. I'm just exploring this idea for the sake of testing it; actually I do not doubt the article's wisdom so much here. But my next concern, I believe in a bit more. 2) I wonder how many of these regrets are due to the systems we live under. It seems to me that even a few hundred years ago, "I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends." would be absurd. You'd be sick to death of how close your friends were (in the 1300s, perhaps literally). Americans are particularly likely to move long distances, though. And as for living a life true to oneself, and expressing oneself -- would you even think of such things if your horizon was one town, or one tribe? Maybe you'd have to be far more discreet, without the refuge of a large city, or other forms of anonymity. As for not working so hard, that seems to be the most tied to whatever our political and economic systems are.