Ignorance and rudeness. Decency and a please and thank you cost nothing.
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Question
What is your greatest fear?
Identity & self
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Question
What would you like to be remembered for?
Death & what remains
Question
What single thing would improve the quality of your life?
Daily life
Question
What has been your biggest disappointment?
Failure & regret
Question
What keeps you awake at night?
Daily life
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A verbatim standing question in The Guardian's rotating Q&A questionnaire, documented across respondents and years.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Lack of self-doubt.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 June 2022 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 197 →
Maggie O'Farrell
Irish-British novelist
Interrupting or talking over people. As a stammerer, I am particularly alert to this.
Lack of empathy and compassion.
Elmore Leonard
Novelist and screenwriter
Guys who use the word “snot.”
More from Ardal O'Hanlon
View profile →People laughing at me, which is terrible for someone who makes a living out of making people laugh.
I have become progressively happier as I’ve got older. It’s to do with not striving as much.
I’d like a manoeuvre called after me, in the way Heimlich has.
Sharper knives.
The day I had to stop playing football five years ago. I realised I couldn’t hack it any more.
My dog wanting to go out for a wee.
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