British track cyclist, 1994–2013
Recorded · The Independent · 2010
I don't enjoy it but I know that I have got to live with [myself] if I'm not going to give it 100 per cent.
Business & enterprise
Investors & capital allocators
Thesis, risk, refusal, management judgment, patience, changed facts, and fiduciary responsibility.
12 questions, 131 answers on the record, from 121 members. Every question is asked in FLAPSS wording — nobody answers as anybody else.
Worth reading
What are you unwilling to optimise?
Spanish professional tennis player, 2001–2024
Recorded · Town & Country · 2025
These tics do bother me. Could I play a match without them? Yes, without some of them. I don't have to touch my nose or put my hair behind my ears before I serve. That's possible to stop.
Chef, restaurateur and food activist
Recorded · Earth Island Journal · 2015
There’s no such thing as cheap food. It can be affordable, but it can never be cheap.
Every question in this questionnaire
- What must be true for an investment thesis to be right, and which assumption is easiest to overlook? —
- What is your theory of how success actually works in the field you work in — the dynamics underneath the surface? —
- How do you distinguish a risk worth taking from one that merely has an attractive upside? —
- How much should instinct count in big decisions? 4
- What makes you say no to an opportunity that could still become very successful? —
- Which founder or management quality matters greatly but is hardest to evaluate before investing? —
- When did you last change your mind about something important? 28
- How has a setback or failure set you up for later success? 69
- When is patience an advantage, and when does it become refusal to admit that the facts changed? —
- When you put your name on something, how thoroughly should you have checked it first — and when have you signed off without checking enough? —
- What are you unwilling to optimise? 30
- What responsibility follows from deciding where other people's money will go? —
Who has answered
Members with enough answers in this questionnaire to be worth arriving at — listed A–Z, not ranked by count.
-
Charlie MungerVice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, 1978–2023
2 answers United States b. 1924
-
Christiane Nüsslein-VolhardDevelopmental biologist; Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine, 1995
2 answers Germany b. 1942
-
DSDerek Sivers
Founder of CD Baby; author of Anything You Want
2 answers United States
-
Desmond TutuAnglican Archbishop of Cape Town; chair of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission; Nobel Peace Prize, 1984
2 answers South Africa 1931–2021
-
Edmund HillaryMountaineer and explorer; first ascent of Everest, 1953
2 answers New Zealand 1919–2008
-
Mario MolinaAtmospheric chemist; Nobel laureate in Chemistry, 1995
2 answers Mexico 1943–2020
-
Steve JobsCo-founder and chief executive of Apple; co-founder of NeXT; chief executive of Pixar
4 answers United States 1955–2011
-
Warren BuffettChairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, 1970–2025
2 answers United States b. 1930
Related questionnaires
Business & enterprise
Founders & CEOs
A practical record of judgment under uncertainty, scaling, people decisions, culture, and responsibility — useful without pretending success has one formula.
Business & enterprise
Small-business owners & operators
Operating knowledge that high-growth founder stories omit: first customers, thin margins, delegation, pricing, and community.
General
The general questionnaire
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.