Maya Jama
British television and radio presenter
I can be properly stubborn sometimes – but that’s me being a classic Leo.
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Question
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Identity & self
Question
What is the worst thing anyone has said to you?
Failure & regret
Question
What is your worst intellectual habit?
Craft & work
Question
What is the worst job you have done?
Craft & work
Question
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
Identity & self
Question
Who most deserves an apology from you, and why?
Failure & regret
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.
Impatience with difficult projects: panicking and giving up too quickly.
Rosanna Greenstreet, The Q&A, The Guardian, 21 March 2009 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 260 →Vic, my wife, has over the years reduced my impatience, but anybody who has been in a traffic jam with me will know that she hasn’t completed the task yet.
Modesty and humility.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Basketball player and author
Laziness. After 30 years of being a disciplined athlete with an intensely tight schedule, I still can’t forgive myself for letting things slide.
More from Alain de Botton
View profile →At 12, I wanted to be an architect, at 18, a writer, and now, at forty, an architect again. I’m powerfully drawn to everything related to building, but I also love ideas. These are my two passions.
"You can't write."
I’m prone to overexplaining things –- when my own understanding of them is shaky. The better I know something, the shorter my prose.
Pulping books.
I'd grow more hair and try to be less mortal.
To two ex-girlfriends, for my cowardice.
More on identity & self
Also answered this
Richard Ford, David Hare, Margaret Atwood, J.K. Rowling, Jia Tolentino, Judy Blume
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- All identity & self questions
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