The question
Which trait in yourself do you like least?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.
I can be a people-pleaser, to the detriment of my own needs sometimes.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 16 December 2023 source ↗
Stealing from the elderly and then acting real cocky about it.
My self-criticism.
Impatience; the inability to savor the moment.
I’m embarrassed when I get people’s names wrong.
It happened when I was younger, somewhere outside London. We were on bikes, and this older girl pulled up and said something racist that I won’t repeat. I will never forget that, because it was the first time, and I was like, “Oh, I am feeling different from everyone around me right now”.
Selfless and open, freeing.
Nothing’s guaranteed and things change in an instant, and to get used to that and stay in the moment.
Cruelty to animals or children.
I quite enjoyed all my retail jobs (I worked in H&M and Gap), but the worst times were the sale periods. The summer sales – awful.
Probably all of them because I am not big into English literature. I read a lot of self-improvement books.
Tim Peake, Alex Lawther, Erin O'Connor, Meghan Trainor, Rose Tremain, Michael Cunningham
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