What if you spent your entire life trying to create something great, only to find out that all of your hard work and effort resulted in something that was ***kinda, sorta, pretty much awful?*** These 11 inventors created things that changed the course of history in both large and small ways: One reimagined the way we drink coffee, and another ensured the inevitable destruction of the earth. Though their inventions definitely run the gamut, all of these visionaries have one thing in common: **They regret ever having any part of it.**Sir Tim Berners-Lee, one of the primary inventors of the world wide web, once contemplated why he used two slashes in URLs: “Really, if you think about it, it doesn’t need the //. I could have designed it not to have the //.” Yeah, Berners- Lee: What was up with that?
There is absolutely nothing wrong with the Labradoodle itself, and in fact, it’s one of the cutest looking animals to ever walk the face of the earth. Still, it’s existence comes with some problems. Originally bred by Wally Conran, he says he regrets introducing the Labradoodle to the world because it sparked a craze for designer, hybrid dogs. Unfortunately, these dogs tend to have health issues.
J. Robert Oppenheimer was part of a team that invented one of the most destructive weapons of the 20th century. He was also quoted as regretting how it was eventually used in WWII: “I have no remorse about the making of the bomb and Trinity [the first test of an a-bomb]. That was done right. As for how we used it, I understand why it happened and appreciate with what nobility those men with whom I’d worked made their decision. But I do not have the feeling that it was done right. The ultimatum to Japan was full of pious platitudes. …our government should have acted with more foresight and clarity in telling the world and Japan what the bomb meant.”
John Sylvan invented the “handy” disposable coffee pods, but he was recently quoted as saying he regretted it due to their wastefulness and ever-growing presence in America’s landfills.
Most of us have worked in a cubicle at least once in our lives, and if you’ve ever felt the harsh, three-walled oppression from this invention, you have Robert Propst to thank. Propst invented this type of workspace, and before he died in 2000, he expressed regret for doing so.
Alfred Nobel invented dynamite, and his work eventually led to him being the namesake of the Nobel Peace Prize. Even Nobel knew this was contradictory, and expressed regret for inventing something so destructive.
Lou Montulli had the idea for an HTML tag that causes text to blink on the page. It will go down in history as being the most obnoxious, prolific HTML tag in history, and even though Montulli didn’t write the actual code to produce the text, he will always be the one to blame.
After wild success, Dong Nguyen, the inventor of “Flappy Bird,” finally had enough of the obnoxious little buggers. In 2014, he removed his game from the app store, and tweeted that the game ruined his life. Really, he ruined all of our lives.
Thomas Midgley invented leaded fuel as an answer to the awful racket that cars were making. What resulted was the slow but inevitable destruction of the earth’s atmosphere. Midgley died before the effects of leaded fuel became clear, but if he were around, we imagine he’d utter one big “Whoops.”
Mikhail Kalashnikov, the inventor of the AK-47, once lamented the fact that he was responsible for such a weapon, saying that he wished he had invented something more helpful – like a landmower.
Arthur Galston invented Agent Orange while trying to discover a hormone to help plants grow. The U.S. military decided to use Agent Orange to destroy enemy crops during the Vietnam War. Unfortunately, the chemical also resulted in birth defects for hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese children. In the end, Galston regretted how Agent Orange was used in Vietnam, but blamed people’s use of it – not the science behind it.
