English model
Recorded · The Guardian · 2008
Shooting hosiery on top of an iceberg and getting my backside stuck to it.
The 2000s
Commencement addresses and long-form print, mostly — the forms that survived into the archive.
25 people · 550 answers
What is the worst job you have ever had?
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
The Guardian's long-running Q&A repeatedly asks this standing question, with minor tense variation.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
American actress and former model
Recorded · The Guardian · 2008
A movie called The Return that was about cows from outer space.
English actor
Recorded · The Guardian · 2008
Several: cutting the local vicar's lawn, shovelling shit from a stable, waiting tables, picking up and washing actors' smelly pants and socks.
English rapper
Recorded · The Guardian · 2009
Cleaning toilets in a motorway service station.
American filmmaker
Recorded · The Guardian · 2008
I worked in a unisex clothes store for three days. Girls would say, 'Do I look fat in this?' I'd say, 'Yes.' I was fired.
Which problem are you still chipping away at?
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.
U.S. Representative from Georgia, 1987–2020; Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee 1963–1966
Recorded · Academy of Achievement · 2004
There are many battles. There’s so much that needs to be done. We need to protect the environment. Save this little planet.
Stem cell biologist; Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine, 2012
Recorded · Academy of Achievement · 2008
we can select one gene out of those 20,000 genes, and completely destroy that one particular gene so that we can understand the function of that particular gene.
Developmental biologist; Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine, 1995
Recorded · Nobel Prize Outreach · 2003
we know the fish, we know the worm, we know the fly, but we don’t know the links between and we don’t know, when we go back to the branches in evolution, we really don’t know what happened…
What makes you want to keep learning?
Originally asked
Vox, to writers and thinkers, 9 Questions, 2017
This exact prompt is one of Vox's nine recurring questions about intellectual habits.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Atmospheric chemist; Nobel laureate in Chemistry, 1995
Recorded · Nobel Prize Outreach · 2007
I have also benefited from teaching; as I try to explain my views to students with critical and open minds, I find myself continually being challenged to go back and rethink ideas.
Stem cell biologist; Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine, 2012
Recorded · Academy of Achievement · 2008
I got very interested in so-called “knockout mouse” technology. Knockout mouse is a way to study the function of genes. You know, both human and mouse have approximately 20,000 genes.
Developmental biologist; Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine, 1995
Recorded · Nobel Prize Outreach · 2003
I think a very big curiosity. I’m very curious and I like to understand things and not only science but also other things where I just try to find out why things work or how things work.
Everyone here · A–Z
Alison Steadman, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Charles Dance, Charlie Munger, Chris Hoy, Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, Cybill Shepherd, David Hasselhoff, Derek Sivers, Desmond Tutu, Ed Harris, Erin O'Connor, Jimmy Carter, John Lewis, John Waters, Joseph Fiennes, Julie Andrews, Mario Molina, Mellody Hobson, Mike Skinner, Mohamed ElBaradei, Oliver Sacks, Robert Carlyle, Shinya Yamanaka, Steve Jobs