Lack of empathy.
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Question
What is the worst job you have done?
Craft & work
Question
Who most deserves an apology from you, and why?
Failure & regret
Question
How would you describe yourself in three words?
Identity & self
Question
What happens when we die?
Death & what remains
Question
What keeps you awake at night?
Daily life
Question
What is the worst thing anyone has said to you?
Failure & regret
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A verbatim standing question in The Guardian's rotating Q&A questionnaire, documented across respondents and years.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
An inability to be authentic.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 April 2026 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 197 →Mistaking shyness for not having anything to say.
People who think they’re always right.
Using knowledge as a weapon.
More from Meghann Fahy
View profile →I’ve never really had a horrible job – I liked working at restaurants and being a nanny when I wasn’t acting.
To myself for diminishing my gut feelings until quite recently.
Curious, thoughtful and kind.
Being alive on Earth is challenging and I like to believe that whatever happens after is filled with peace and ease.
All of the anxious thoughts that you are able to escape during the day that somehow know when you are lying down to relax.
I had a casting director once stop me in the middle of an audition and tell me to go wash my face in the bathroom because she felt my makeup was too distracting, but I wasn’t wearing any. It was mortifying. It felt like a power play and I was so young, I didn’t know what to do.
More on values & belief
- Which living person do you most admire, and why? 406 answers
- What is something everyone in your world agrees about that you think is wrong? 79 answers
- What are you unwilling to optimise? 30 answers
- What have you come to understand about what it means to be human? 14 answers
- What is the most overrated virtue? 10 answers
- What do you need to believe in order to get through the day? 9 answers
Also answered this
Frank Bowling, Ai Weiwei, Stanley Tucci, Dawn O’Porter, Michelle Collins, Julian Lennon
Search the directory for somebody in particular.
Explore further
- All values & belief questions
- The The Q&A questionnaire — 25 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject