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Poll: Hacker News (Myers-Briggs) Personality Types

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Re: Poll: Hacker News (Myers-Briggs) Personality Types

#131

Post by asdflkj »

bentoner wrote: post #88
mkn wrote: post #72

Between the Forer Effect ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forer_effect ), confirmation bias ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias ), and the fact that people routinely retest into different categories ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers-Briggs#Study_of_scoring_c... ), I don't place much stock in Myers-Briggs. Add to that the dubious way in which the theory was developed, and I'm completely mystified by the…

You're missing the point. Myers-Brigg types are most useful for understanding other people, not for understanding yourself. Before I read about the other Myers-Brigg types, I just didn't understand why certain other people made decisions as they did, e.g., a member of a group insisting on a worse outcome for everyone to punish someone who'd offended them. I mean, it just wasn't logical! You see, I was trying to under…

How are you supposed to know a person's Myers-Briggs type, when you're trying to understand that person's behavior? It's not exactly listed on the nametag. So the best you can do is infer it from what you already know of that person. But if you already know so much as to be able to infer it, you can understand/predict that person's behavior without resorting to any pigeon-holing.

Re: Poll: Hacker News (Myers-Briggs) Personality Types

#133

Post by bentoner »

asdflkj wrote: post #131
bentoner wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're missing the point. Myers-Brigg types are most useful for understanding other people, not for understanding yourself. Before I read about the other Myers-Brigg types, I just didn't understand why certain other people made decisions as they did, e.g., a member of a group insisting on a worse outcome for everyone to punish someone who'd offended them. I mean, it just wasn't logical! You see, I was trying to under…

How are you supposed to know a person's Myers-Briggs type, when you're trying to understand that person's behavior? It's not exactly listed on the nametag. So the best you can do is infer it from what you already know of that person. But if you already know so much as to be able to infer it, you can understand/predict that person's behavior without resorting to any pigeon-holing.

If you're a people-person and can instinctively understand the people you meet, then you're right. But not everyone is born with this skill -- certainly I wasn't. Learning about the other Myers-Briggs types helped me to develop it.

Re: Poll: Hacker News (Myers-Briggs) Personality Types

#135

Post by timr »

randallsquared wrote: post #122
timr wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, the results are certainly skewed, but that's not necessarily an indication of anything interesting . For example, you can't rule out the possibility that the test is particularly appealing to people with a certain personality (i.e. "hackers"), and that the test happens to label these people identically (i.e. " NT "). The fact that the test was posted here, and that the results are heavily skewed toward a small…

"the test is particularly appealing to people with a certain personality (i.e. "hackers"), and that the test happens to label these people identically (i.e. "NT")." Isn't this the only claim that proponents of the test make? It's the whole point: people with different personalities are supposed to show up differently on the test. It's not clear to me why you seem to think that the claims for the test are actually cla…

Well, the Meyers-Briggs test claims to be able to discriminate many different types, not just NT variants. But NT seems to be a type that is particularly well-identified by the test. You don't often hear SJs (for example) raving about the accuracy of their type classification.

Simpler example: if I created a test that appealed primarily to cooks, written using language and questions that related to food and gastronomy, you probably wouldn't be surprised if that test "profiled" the characteristics of a large number of professional chefs. You could argue that such a test is therefore a good discriminator of professional chefs, but that doesn't necessarily make it an interesting assessment of personality.

Point is, maybe there's something about the analytical nature of the people described as "NT" that leads them to find this test appealing/accurate/relevant. You can control for this phenomenon in an experimental setting, but you can't point to the results here, and suggest that it validates the test because the results are exceptionally skewed.

Re: Poll: Hacker News (Myers-Briggs) Personality Types

#136

Post by timr »

llimllib wrote: post #120
timr wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, the results are certainly skewed, but that's not necessarily an indication of anything interesting . For example, you can't rule out the possibility that the test is particularly appealing to people with a certain personality (i.e. "hackers"), and that the test happens to label these people identically (i.e. " NT "). The fact that the test was posted here, and that the results are heavily skewed toward a small…

But even if it is an enormous case of selection bias (which I won't argue against, since it's a position I've held myself), it may still be interesting. And to hold that there's such a wide selection bias among the type of people who frequent this site is, I would argue, an interesting phenomenon.

I don't disagree. "Interest" is a pretty ambiguous word. That said, if this site appeals to a certain type of person, and the test appeals to the same type of person, then the results aren't surprising. I guess that's what I'm getting at.

Re: Poll: Hacker News (Myers-Briggs) Personality Types

#139

Post by misterbwong »

Spyckie wrote: post #107
misterbwong wrote: post #71

I'm an ENFP now, but the funny thing is I was an ISTJ in high school (about 7 years ago). Funny how a few years can change you.

wow. now THAT is quite some change. Can you be more explicit in what changed you so much? I'm transitioning now from an INFP to an ENFP, but that's only because I've found some people who I can feel comfortable socializing with.

I'm not entirely sure, actually. I went through college, made some really good friends, and got involved in some campus clubs. Being around a lot of people really changed my focus outward.

Re: Poll: Hacker News (Myers-Briggs) Personality Types

#140

Post by feijai »

tokipin wrote: post #103
feijai wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jobs would be an ENFP.

pretty sure he's ENTP -- the prototypical entrepreneur Gates is certainly ENTJ

Jobs is not just an entrepreneur: his #1 feature is charisma. No one with a T has a reality distortion field.

He's an ENFP.

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