I loathe orthodoxy of any sort.
The Independent, The Independent, 27 September 2003 source ↗
The question
What important truth do very few people agree with you on?Originally asked
Peter Thiel, to job candidates, Zero to One, chapter 1, 2014
Peter Thiel, Zero to One, chapter 1, where it is introduced as his job-interview question. Thiel supplies his own standard: a good answer takes the form "most people believe x, but the truth is the opposite of x."
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Others on this question
View all 48 →
Leon Panetta
Attorney and politician; Director of the Office of Management and Budget, White House Chief of Staff, Director of the CIA and Secretary of Defense
But if our institutions of democracy are not working, that is an even greater threat to our national security
Jacqueline Novogratz
Founder and chief executive of Acumen
That human beings are selfish. I don’t believe it. We have angels and monsters inside each of us. What we need to do better as a society is create systems and opportunities to bring out our most generous.
Ahmed Zewail
Chemist; Nobel laureate in Chemistry, 1999
Today I was reading the latest issue of Nature, and somebody had written an editorial that said scientists should be basically directing their work to the service of society by making the discoveries that are relevant. The problem is I don’t know what’s relevant!
Recorded
Heidi Aspaturian, Caltech Oral History Project, Caltech Archives Oral History Project, 2015
source ↗
Andre Russell
Jamaican cricketer; West Indies all-rounder and twice a T20 World Cup winner
I believe in Test cricket, but at the end of the day, I’m a professional. It wasn’t part of my journey. I have no regrets because it wasn’t me that turned my back.
More from Ardal O'Hanlon
View profile →I was always a watcher.
Lack of self-doubt.
I’d like a manoeuvre called after me, in the way Heimlich has.
I have become progressively happier as I’ve got older. It’s to do with not striving as much.
Sharper knives.
My dog wanting to go out for a wee.
More on values & belief
- Which living person do you most admire, and why? 426 answers
- What is the trait you most deplore in others? 210 answers
- What is something everyone in your world agrees about that you think is wrong? 91 answers
- What are you unwilling to optimise? 37 answers
- What have you come to understand about what it means to be human? 31 answers
- What do you need to believe in order to get through the day? 25 answers
Also answered this
Adeel Akhtar, Ephraim Asili, Alan Cumming, Alice Sheppard, Agnès Varda, Geoffrey Rush
Search the directory for somebody in particular.
Explore further
- All values & belief questions
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject