Which living person do you most admire, and why?

Originally asked

The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A

The Guardian's Q&A repeatedly uses this prompt, sometimes dropping 'living' while retaining the same comparative judgment.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Recorded Charlie Munger said elsewhere, not written here
John Wooden, when he was the number one basketball coach in the world. He just said to the bottom five players, “You don't get to play. You're sparring partners.” The top seven did all the playing.

USC Gould School of Law commencement, 2007, Speakola, 2007 source ↗

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Warren Buffett Chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, 1970–2025
I think that Jay Powell in when, when the epidemic broke out, I think he acted in March of 2020 and I think if he'd waited two or three weeks, it would have been a disaster. Once the dominoes start toppling, they just start toppling and, and, and, and that line is shorter than anybody thinks, and it topples faster. And I think he did exactly the right thing, and he, he did it even stronger than Volker did. You know, I mean, he, he and Volker are my heroes at the Fed.
Recorded Becky Quick, CNBC “Squawk Box”, recorded in Omaha; CNBC's own transcript of its own broadcast, 31 March 2026 source ↗
My mom, for her unflappable ability to be sanguine (though she sometimes dips into Pollyanna territory).
Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, August 2021 source ↗

More from Charlie Munger

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Question What are you unwilling to optimise? Values & belief
The highest form that civilization can reach is a seamless web of deserved trust. Not much procedure, just totally reliable people correctly trusting one another. That's the way an operating room works at the Mayo Clinic. If a bunch of lawyers were to introduce a lot of process, the patients would all die. So never forget, when you're a lawyer, that you may be rewarded for selling this stuff, but you don't have to buy it. In your own life, what you want is a seamless web of deserved trust. And if your proposed marriage contract has forty-seven pages, my suggestion is you not enter.
Recorded USC Gould School of Law commencement, Speakola, 2007 source ↗
Question What advice would you give your twenty-year-old self, and what should they ignore? Time & hindsight
Luckily, I got at a very early age the idea that the safest way to try and get what you want is to try and deserve what you want. It's such a simple idea. It's the golden rule so to speak. You want to deliver to the world what you would buy if you were on the other end. There is no ethos, in my opinion, that is better for any lawyer or any other person to have.
Recorded USC Gould School of Law commencement, Speakola, 2007 source ↗
Question What is something everyone in your world agrees about that you think is wrong? Values & belief
I realized very early that non-egality would work better in the parts of the world I wanted to inhabit. What do I mean by non-egality? I mean John Wooden, when he was the number one basketball coach in the world. He just said to the bottom five players, “You don't get to play. You're sparring partners.” The top seven did all the playing.
Recorded USC Gould School of Law commencement, 2007, Speakola, 2007 source ↗

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