While I'm thinking of it

[jwgh]

urbeatle posted earlier that he took one of those online Myers-Briggs tests, which reminded me that a few years back my employer paid for me to take an 'official' personality test from the Frank Whyte Education Services people and later to take a training class where we learned about the different kinds of personalities and what-not.

I'm deeply suspicious of the whole thing because, first, it's not really clear to me how falsefiable it is (I believe the instructor said at one point that the test was incredibly accurate and at another that your results might vary depending on what was going on the day you took the test, etc.) and also how meaningful it is (the choice of the four dualities seems pretty arbitrary; I bet there are others that could have been chosen that would be as measurable or more so). But, you know, the whole thing was sort of interesting.

Anyway, while I was cleaning my room the other day I happened to find the report they sent me, so let it be recorded that I am an INFP! Now if someone asks me while I'm online I might actually be able to find this information.

They also gave me a little bar graph showing that my test results showed that my preferences had the following level of 'clarity':

Introversion: Moderate [opposed to Extraversion]
iNtuition: Clear [opposed to Sensing]
Feeling: Clear [opposed to Thinking]
Perceiving Moderate [opposed to Judging]

These are along a scale that goes: [no label], Slight, Moderate, Clear, and Very Clear. [Insert Scientology joke here if desired.]

My recollection is that the majority of people are I, N, F, and P as opposed to their opposites, making me a super-freak! Phear me!

Comments

What we really need is a more elaborate system of pigeonholes to put people in

[(Anonymous)]

While revising my CV some while ago, I decided that it might be a good idea, along with "publications" and "recent career record" and "professional memberships", to include a section labelled "irrational belief systems". This would be the place to record that I am an INFJ (or sometimes INTJ or INFP, depends when I take the test), born under Aries, born in the year of the Iron Rat (which I like to think of as Stainless Steel Rat), my dominant management styles are Plant and Completer/Finisher, and my shamanic power animal is the slow loris. And my political alignment seems to be alarmingly close to Gandhi for a former member of the reserve armed forces.

Obviously such a scheme would be hugely useful to the recruitment industry and prospective employers, as instead of giving pathetic excuses for denying people employment like "you don't have quite the right kind of degree" or "we're really looking for someone with 16 years' experience of programming in Befunge", or saying something of questionable legality like "you're too old and we don't like bald men with beards", they can refuse to employ you because they were looking for someone less introverted, or more Sagittarian, or with a slightly faster-moving shamanic power animal.