Business & enterprise
Operating knowledge that high-growth founder stories omit: first customers, thin margins, delegation, pricing, and community.
12 questions, 210 answers on the record, from 160 members. Every question is asked in FLAPSS wording — nobody answers as anybody else.
What are you best at that nobody watching would notice?
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1993–2020; Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit 1980–1993
I have followed that advice - with, I confess, occasional lapses not only at home, but in the places I have worked, even in relating to my colleagues at the Supreme Court.
Recorded · New York Law School Law Review (digitalcommons.nyls.edu) · 1999
Co-founder, president and chief executive of NVIDIA
Of all of the things that I value most about my abilities, intelligence is not top of that list.
Recorded · YouTube (recording of the Caltech commencement address) · 2024
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, 1940–1945 and 1951–1955; Member of Parliament 1900–1964
Mr. Somervell—a most delightful man, to whom my debt is great—was charged with the duty of teaching the stupidest boys the most disregarded thing—namely, to write mere English.
Recorded · Winston S. Churchill, My Early Life (Thornton Butterworth, 1930), Project Gutenberg Canada · 1930
Members with enough answers in this questionnaire to be worth arriving at — listed A–Z, not ranked by count.
Chef, restaurateur and food activist
2 answers United States b. 1944
Playwright; two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama
2 answers United States 1945–2005
44th President of the United States, 2009–2017; United States Senator from Illinois 2005–2008
3 answers United States b. 1961
42nd President of the United States, 1993–2001
2 answers United States b. 1946
Film director and screenwriter
2 answers South Korea b. 1969
Co-founder and chief executive of Airbnb
2 answers United States b. 1981
Australian sprinter, 1990–2003
2 answers Australia b. 1973
Vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, 1978–2023
3 answers United States b. 1924
British track cyclist, 1994–2013
3 answers United Kingdom b. 1976
Developmental biologist; Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine, 1995
2 answers Germany b. 1942
Psychologist; laureate of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences, 2002
2 answers Israel / United States 1934–2024
Founder of CD Baby; author of Anything You Want
3 answers United States
Business & enterprise
A practical record of judgment under uncertainty, scaling, people decisions, culture, and responsibility — useful without pretending success has one formula.
Business & enterprise
Thesis, risk, refusal, management judgment, patience, changed facts, and fiduciary responsibility.
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.