We're taught to try to live life without regret. But why? Using her own tattoo as an example, Kathryn Schulz makes a powerful and moving case for embracing our regrets.

Winter at the South Pole. Six months of darkness. Ice, far as the eye can see. Sub-zero temperatures…and no flights, in or out, from February to October.



But none of that has deterred Astrophysicist Robert Schwarz, of the...