Founder of CD Baby; author of Anything You Want
The proudest achievement of my life at that time was that software.
Recorded · Derek Sivers · 2009
One question · 6 of 27 answers to it
What is your favourite side project?
Originally asked
Lifehacker, to people about their working day, How I Work
Lifehacker repeatedly used this exact prompt in its named How I Work questionnaire.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Founder and chief executive of Acumen
Email. Or call a good friend. Reading this reminds me that I should instead read poetry. Or write.
Recorded · Thrive Global · 2017
Scottish actor, producer, director, writer and presenter
The Cumming fragrance line. the soap, Cumming in a bar (still available at alancumming.com) is my favorite ever pun on my name.
Recorded · The Marketing Society · 2016
Rock climber; first person to free solo El Capitan
Thanks for asking, this is a bit of a cool side project for me.
Recorded · Planetmountain.com · 2014
Attorney and politician; Director of the Office of Management and Budget, White House Chief of Staff, Director of the CIA and Secretary of Defense
I think what we’re trying to do at the Panetta Institute is to try to get all young people to understand that they have a duty to give back to our country in some capacity.
Recorded · Defense Media Network · 2019
American football quarterback
I’m proudest of some of the work that we’ve done off the field or things that I just take an enormous amount of pride in, ideally with a charity foundation called the Peyback Foundation.
Recorded · Academy of Achievement · 2007
Answers marked Recorded were said elsewhere and are quoted with the publication and date they came from. Those people have not joined — nobody here answers on anyone else's behalf.
What problem are you still trying to solve?
Originally asked
Lifehacker, to people about their working day, How I Work
Lifehacker repeatedly used this exact closing prompt in its named How I Work questionnaire.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Mountaineer and explorer; first ascent of Everest, 1953
I think most of our major challenges are not going to be in the physical field at all.
Recorded · Academy of Achievement
Atmospheric chemist; Nobel laureate in Chemistry, 1995
I certainly want to continue trying to understand how the global environment functions. The earth as a system is a very complicated one.
Recorded · Academy of Achievement · 1996
Biologist and physician; Nobel laureate in chemistry for the discovery of ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation
The world ‘ageing’ itself is an issue: we do not know what it means.
Recorded · Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings · 2014
Who helps you get things done?
Originally asked
Lifehacker, to people about their working day, How I Work
Lifehacker repeatedly used this exact support-network prompt in its named How I Work questionnaire.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Co-founder and chief executive of Apple; co-founder of NeXT; chief executive of Pixar
You're missing it. This is not a one-man show.
Recorded · Business Week · 1998
Chemist; Nobel laureate in Chemistry, 1999
I have had students and postdocs of the first class close to four hundred people.
Recorded · Caltech Archives Oral History Project · 2015
Writer
I had help in the form of my friend and former editor Carrie Frye
Recorded · The Creative Independent · 2022
What do you need to believe in order to get through the day?
Originally asked
Vox, to writers and thinkers, 9 Questions, 2017
Vox used this exact prompt throughout its named 9 Questions series on intellectual habits.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Co-founder and chief executive of Apple; co-founder of NeXT; chief executive of Pixar
Technology is nothing. What’s important is that you have a faith in people, that they’re basically good and smart, and if you give them tools, they’ll do wonderful things with them.
Recorded · Rolling Stone · 1994
Writer
I act like a hopeful person, but I think that hope is based on having zero expectations.
Recorded · AnOther · 2019
Naval aviator and astronaut; the first American in space and the fifth person to walk on the Moon
No. I think all of us had such confidence in the technology that it was not a question. It was just a question of scheduling and a question of the funds to do it.
Recorded · Academy of Achievement · 1991
People, by what they do
- Science and medicine 105
- Arts and letters 1211
- Politics and public life 132
- Business and finance 70
- Technology 47
- Sport 109
Recorded for public figures, from the source their answers were taken from. Browse by era too.
Questions, by subject
- Identity & self 14
- Values & belief 13
- Change of mind 1
- Failure & regret 9
- Craft & work 36
- Money & investment 4
- Taste & recommendation 6
- Relationships 5
- Time & hindsight 8
- Death & what remains 13
- Daily life 9
- Attention & the world 8
Every question the bank can deal, in the order it was written. See all 126.
Some of the people here · A–Z
Find someone →Ada Yonath, Alex Honnold, Andre Geim, Andrew Ng, Barry Scheck, Billie Piper, Chuck Jones, David Olusoga, Diane Keaton, Douglas Booth, Elaine Paige, FLAPSS Admin, Jacqueline Novogratz, Jerry Springer, Jim Findlay, John Hopfield, Karamo Brown, Kate Folk, Keir Starmer, Laurel Halo, Madi Diaz, Mark Rylance, Marvin Minsky, Mel Giedroyc, Miho Hatori, Milton Jones, Nicola Adams, Nithin Kamath, Norman Borlaug, Paul Graham, Paul Whitehouse, Raf Simons, Rana el Kaliouby, Ratan Tata, Richard Hawley, Robert Glenister, Rose McGowan, Sienna Miller, Steve Coogan, Zeynep Tufekci
Answers that stay at one address
You are dealt a few questions at a time and answer the ones you want to. What you write gets a permanent address and keeps it. Rewrite it whenever you like and say why — the new version goes up beside the old one rather than over it, so changing your mind reads as thinking rather than as a reversal.
You write before you read. Other members' answers to a question stay shut until you have answered it or passed on it, because reading first changes what you would have said. Passing is free and it is permanent.
- People
- 1,679
- Answers
- 8,105
- Questions
- 126
- First said
- 1910–2026
Most of what is here so far was said somewhere else and recorded with its source — a named person, a publication and a date, on every line. Nothing has been deleted.