The great thing about the entirety of human history is that it is basically one big guide of what not to do if we want to see progress and peace. For being supposedly the most intelligent species on this planet, we’re not very bright. For every great thing that has happened since people existed, there are numerous different tragedies and failures that exist to humble it. Nobody said existing was easy.

It’s true that hindsight is a gift, and the one, totally unproportionate benefit of horrible things happening is that we can (theoretically) learn a lesson from them. This seems to be the motivations behind an AskReddit thread in which Redditors gave examples of some of the most impactful wrong turns that have been made throughout history. If you’re ever feeling down about your lot in life, just remember that you have probably never messed up as badly as this.