the natural tendency to solidify a narrative that makes you look good
Hope Reese, interview, Longreads, 6 August 2019 source ↗
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.
Others on this question
View all 263 →I’m argumentative.
Too controlling about silly things like timings or not having toxic cleaning products in the house.
Al Franken
Senator and comedian
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.
I dislike my impatience.
More from Jia Tolentino
View profile →I’m always afraid of false certainty about things
I needed to physically be totally alone and be in a different place to get going.
I worked as an editor until I joined the New Yorker , and so I’m an extremely tough self-editor. I also love being edited. I love a hard edit. It’s a privilege to be edited hard.
I act like a hopeful person, but I think that hope is based on having zero expectations.
I love being bad at something and getting better at it.
At a basic level, I think something is successful if I think I got myself anywhere new at all.
More on identity & self
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Jane Asher, Margaret Atwood, Julian Clary, Kathy Lette, John Grisham, Jacqueline Wilson
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