The question
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
The Guardian's The Q&A has retained this Proust-derived prompt from at least 2007 through 2026, and ABC independently put it to the Obamas in 2011.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Being too thin-skinned.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 17 January 2026 source ↗
I had to ask people about this, because I couldn’t think of anything, and the consensus seems to be: a general lack of self-awareness.
Intermittent laziness.
I can’t say no. I am a people-pleaser, and it means that I burn myself out because I take on too much.
Impatience and being bossy.
Having somebody pull my judo trousers down at a competition when I was seven. And finding I wasn’t wearing any pants.
A painting of a man who was killed on the Dutch coast in 1600.
Moments of vanity, carelessness and unkindness.
On X, I am regularly called a traitor, a fraud, a grifter, a weakling, a narcissist, a coward and a child molester.
The US election showed me that I had trapped myself in wishful thinking.
Surprise. Smiles. Courage. Safety.
Jon Sopel, Ed Koch, Al Franken, Mike Wallace, John Lewis, Jon Snow
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