Quiet, sharp, clumsy.
How would you describe yourself in three words?
Question
Who most deserves an apology from you, and why?
Failure & regret
Question
What is the worst job you have done?
Craft & work
Question
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
Failure & regret
Question
Which teacher, parent, coach or friend most made you who you are, and what did you learn from them?
Relationships
Question
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
Identity & self
Question
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Identity & self
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
The Guardian's weekly The Q&A repeatedly uses this exact standing prompt.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Fear, anxiety, longing, love, art, beauty.
Charlotte Philby, My secret life, The Independent, 1 May 2009 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 121 →Brave, naughty, diligent.
Young, beautiful, deluded.
Cheerful, sensitive, sassy.
More from Alain de Botton
View profile →To two ex-girlfriends, for my cowardice.
Pulping books.
I'd take a course in bread-making and open a small bakery.
I came from a family where books were highly valued, and that set me on the path of reading. Also, my family got out there and did stuff, and so I grew up feeling that you could change things and get things done if you worked hard.
I'd grow more hair and try to be less mortal.
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.
More on identity & self
Also answered this
Margaret Atwood, Adam Zagajewski, Neil Gaiman, Frank Bowling, Pauline Black, Derek Sivers
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