Craft & work
Six questions about how you work, what your job really is, and the advice your field gets wrong.
6 questions, 144 answers on the record, from 106 members. Every question is asked in FLAPSS wording — nobody answers as anybody else.
Whose work makes you envious?
Film director; Requiem for a Dream, The Wrestler, Black Swan
I think I’ve always been jealous of musicians. You hear the story where Bob Dylan wrote a song in the afternoon and it became the anthem for a generation.
Recorded · The Tim Ferriss Show · 2018
Prime Minister of New Zealand, 2017–2023; Leader of the Labour Party 2017–2023
Recently I had the privilege of joining ex German Chancellor, Angela Merkel on a panel. I have long been in awe of her leadership, not least for her endurance. She was in power for 16 years.
Recorded · Harvard Magazine · 2022
Neuroscientist; professor of neuroscience and psychology at the University of California, Berkeley
there were a group of scientists from the University of Geneva who conducted a brilliant study.
Recorded · The Tim Ferriss Show · 2023
Members with enough answers in this questionnaire to be worth arriving at — listed A–Z, not ranked by count.
44th President of the United States, 2009–2017; United States Senator from Illinois 2005–2008
2 answers United States b. 1961
42nd President of the United States, 1993–2001
3 answers United States b. 1946
Australian sprinter, 1990–2003
2 answers Australia b. 1973
British track cyclist, 1994–2013
2 answers United Kingdom b. 1976
Developmental biologist; Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine, 1995
2 answers Germany b. 1942
Co-founder and chief executive of Nubank
3 answers Colombia
Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town; chair of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission; Nobel Peace Prize, 1984
2 answers South Africa 1931–2021
Mountaineer and explorer; first ascent of Everest, 1953
3 answers New Zealand 1919–2008
Novelist, short-story writer and translator
2 answers Japan b. 1949
Chairman and chief executive of JPMorgan Chase from 2005
2 answers United States b. 1956
Radio astronomer; discoverer of pulsars
4 answers United Kingdom b. 1943
U.S. Representative from Georgia, 1987–2020; Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee 1963–1966
3 answers United States 1940–2020
General
Twelve questions in FLAPSS wording — taste, daily life, craft, failure, and who formed you. The place to start if you have no idea where to start.
Reading & recommendations
Five questions about books you pass on, books that changed you, gaps on your list, and long-form work that stayed with you.
Daily life
Six questions about how your days start, what you refuse, and the small habits you keep.