In their thirties

Old enough to have a view and young enough to still be arguing for it. A great deal of the working advice on this site was given at this age.

31 people · 1,032 answers

Excluding property, what is the most expensive thing you have ever bought?

Originally asked

The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A

The Guardian's weekly The Q&A repeatedly uses this standing prompt, with minor contractions and word-order variation.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Big Narstie

British entertainer

Recorded · The Guardian · 2022

Passion projects. I built the world’s first CBD steam room, opened the first Jamaican restaurant in Tenerife, I’m about to open a bar.
Bradley Wiggins

British former professional road and track racing cyclist

Recorded · The Guardian · 2019

I bought a pink leader’s jersey from the 1953 Tour of Italy which belonged to Swiss rider Hugo Koblet. I spent £45,000.
All 35 from in their thirties → or everyone who answered it

As a child, what career or life did you imagine for yourself?

Originally asked

The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A

This is a standing question in The Guardian's decades-long The Q&A and also recurs independently in career and life interviews.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Emeli Sandé

British singer

Recorded · The Guardian · 2017

I always wanted to be a singer, but I also wanted to be a doctor. I almost got there: I did four years and got my neuroscience BSc.
Joss Stone

English singer, songwriter, and actress

Recorded · The Guardian · 2021

A veterinarian, but I decided against it because it required too many years of schooling; I wasn’t great at school.
All 33 from in their thirties → or everyone who answered it

What do you fear most?

Originally asked

Vanity Fair, to its interview subject, The Proust Questionnaire

The exact prompt is fixed in Vanity Fair's Proust Questionnaire and independently sustained in The Guardian's The Q&A over multiple decades.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Katie Melua

Recorded · The Guardian · 2023

When I see older generations struggling with technology, I am afraid of it moving so quickly that I can’t use it.
Vick Hope

British television and radio presenter

Recorded · The Guardian · 2022

When I was growing up, I thought quicksand was going to be a much bigger fear to contend with on a day‑to-day basis. It hasn’t proved to be a bother yet, but there’s still time.
All 20 from in their thirties → or everyone who answered it

Everyone here · A–Z

Alex Lawther, Chris Hoy, Douglas Booth, Eleanor Tomlinson, Erin Doherty, Erin O'Connor, Giovanna Fletcher, Hamza Yassin, Jack Whitehall, James Norton, Jenna Coleman, Johannes Radebe, Joseph Fiennes, Katie Melua, Kiell Smith-Bynoe, Layton Williams, Leona Lewis, Marcus Mumford, Marina Diamandis, Meghann Fahy, Mellody Hobson, Mike Skinner, Nish Kumar, Rebecca Ferguson, Rebecca Lucy Taylor, Richard Feynman, Romola Garai, Rosalind Eleazar, Sarah Perry, Steve Jobs, Tuppence Middleton

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