Naturalist and evolutionary biologist
Anyhow, I talked it over with my mother, and she said, “Well, if that’s what you want, go right ahead.” She was a wonderful woman. And so I did.
Recorded · Academy of Achievement · 2001
Public & community service
Public leadership & stewardship
Comparable answers about power, disagreement, accountability, institutional stewardship, and measurable public results.
12 questions, 196 answers on the record, from 170 members. Every question is asked in FLAPSS wording — nobody answers as anybody else.
Worth reading
When you need counsel, who is the first person you call?
Vocalist
It’s been amazing to be able to spend so much time with her. I’ve joined a couple of tours last year and I’m going to visit her in Denver soon.
Recorded · The Talks · 2024
Poet, memoirist and civil rights activist
Try to retain some of the finest parts of the African American culture, some of the sweetest parts.
Recorded · Academy of Achievement · 2000
Every question in this questionnaire
- What responsibility of public office matters most to you when nobody is watching? —
- What is a lawful use of power that you would still refuse as wrong? —
- How should a public leader explain a necessary choice whose costs fall unfairly on some people? —
- When constituents strongly disagree with your judgment, what should make you hold your position and what should make you change it? —
- When did you last change your mind about something important? 28
- Which result should the public use to decide whether your service was effective? —
- When you put your name on something, how thoroughly should you have checked it first — and when have you signed off without checking enough? —
- When you need counsel, who is the first person you call? 12
- How has a setback or failure set you up for later success? 69
- What are you unwilling to optimise? 30
- What should be stronger in the institution after you leave, even if nobody credits you for it? —
- Which teacher, parent, coach, or friend most made you who you are, and what did you learn from them? 57
Who has answered
Members with enough answers in this questionnaire to be worth arriving at — listed A–Z, not ranked by count.
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AS
2 answers
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Charlie MungerVice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, 1978–2023
2 answers United States b. 1924
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Christiane Nüsslein-VolhardDevelopmental biologist; Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine, 1995
3 answers Germany b. 1942
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DSDerek Sivers
Founder of CD Baby; author of Anything You Want
2 answers United States
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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
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Edmund HillaryMountaineer and explorer; first ascent of Everest, 1953
2 answers New Zealand 1919–2008
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FCFrancis Collins
American physician-scientist
2 answers United States b. 1950
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FCFrancis Ford Coppola
Film director, producer and screenwriter; director of The Godfather and Apocalypse Now
2 answers United States b. 1939
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Frederick W. SmithFounder and long-serving chairman of FedEx Corporation
2 answers United States 1944–2025
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Joyce Carol OatesNovelist, short story writer and essayist
2 answers United States b. 1938
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Mario MolinaAtmospheric chemist; Nobel laureate in Chemistry, 1995
3 answers Mexico 1943–2020
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Maya AngelouPoet, memoirist and civil rights activist
2 answers United States 1928–2014
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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.