Ask me anything about AMAs

Our studio recently introduced a fortnightly AMA (ask me anything) session, where a team member is nominated on Slack to answer a variety of weird and wonderful questions asked by other Paper Giant staff. In the space of an afternoon, conversations weave from the introspective and enlightening through to the absurd.

The Paper Giant AMA inspired me to revisit the home of the crowdsourced interview, the IAmA subreddit (which stands, somewhat confusingly, for “I am a…”. As in, I am an astronaut, AMA.) The informal and unstructured interview format makes space for curiosity and candour, bringing out the best (and sometimes worst) in its subjects. Some winning moments include:

• Director Werner Herzog on how walking gives him wisdom
• Astronaut Chris Hadfield describing how he felt looking back at Earth from space
• A repair shop owner sharing her philosophy on our relationship with ‘stuff’.
  Anyone interested in social dynamics or just plain curious about their fellow human will get a kick out of seeing these conversations unfold. Have a read.