If Myers-Briggs is useful for anything, it's to help you avoid anyone who takes great pride in being an INTJ.
Why companies are interested in Myers-Briggs types
151–160 of 251 posts
Re: Why companies are interested in Myers-Briggs types
#152Earlier quoted context omitted.
The types themselves are also nonsense. There's sixteen of them, and all sixteen have significant tendencies in all four axes. It seems extremely unlikely that someone would always have a tendency in every axis all the time, so the types themselves are set up wrong. They're not even acknowledging the possibility of an inconclusive result. It's also easy to see the financial incentive of removing the possibility for s…
> It seems extremely unlikely that someone would always have a tendency in every axis all the time It's a preference. You're making it out to be more than it is. It doesn't preclude that someone can have little preference for one tendency over another. Most times test results give you percentages. > Telling people that they're mostly average, even if for a lot of people it's the truth, doesn't convince them they're g…
I think "you're making it out to be more than it is" sort of surrenders the whole purpose of the test. If the test isn't consistent and doesn't have the power to predict outcomes, then it is effectively the same as the "which Harry Potter Character are you" Buzzfeed quizzes - e.g. amusing but meaningless.
As for who pays for this stuff: At least two of the FAANGs pay consultants thousands of dollars to run these tests as team building exercises. There's a thriving market for this stuff.
Re: Why companies are interested in Myers-Briggs types
#153Earlier quoted context omitted.
The list of technologies the CIA has evaluated since it's inception is long and full of quackery.
Without commenting on Meyers-Briggs, the CIA/FBI still use polygraphs during their interviews despite widespread acceptance that it’s useless.
Polygraphs can be a useful interrogation tool if the person being interrogated believes they are a magic lie detecting machine.
Re: Why companies are interested in Myers-Briggs types
#154Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do we actually have any evidence that “when in the year you were born in” has worse statistical relevance than the admittedly weak relevance of personality tests? If not (and I’ve not seen it) then the candidate is just stating a preference for not working with companies that are lazy intellectually. That’s not naive that’s sensible.
Yes, Bridgewater.
So far as I know Bridgewater has never published numbers on their traders based on the part of the year they were born in.
Do you have a citation?
Re: Why companies are interested in Myers-Briggs types
#155> And that’s it—there’s simply very little data on how well the Myers-Briggs (and other type-based personality tests) measures personality and even less on how it might predict job performance. I was surprised there wasn't any mention of a very interesting issue here, i.e. MBTI and other typological instruments come with user manuals, training, etc., and those materials specifically say "do not use this for hiring".…
I just come out and say it? There’s nothing wrong with knowing you are a certain type. At least it’s helpful for me to point at the ‘challenges’ section and tell people ‘I do this, please keep poking me until I give you attention’. In the same way it’s helpful to have a literal definition of how other people think, because the idea that someone might deliberately go with a suboptimal idea because they value peace is…
Recently in startups I’ve been a part of it’s become a bit of a fad to have a short write up called “how I work” which is basically a treatise consisting of that person telling everyone else how they interact with the world. I’ve found it refreshing, actually.
Re: Why companies are interested in Myers-Briggs types
#156Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Do you mean True Colors? No.[1] > My impression from some brief training was that it's based on temperament theory and not a knock off of MBTI. From your link: > According to this personality temperament theory, which is a refined version of the popular Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) [...] To-may-to, to-mah-to. [1]: https://realcolors.org/
Ah, that's interesting. I checked out their history page. https://realcolors.org/what_is_realcolors/history/ Anytime they start by rewinding to millennia ago, that's temperament theory. Keirsey's temperament theory that they mention is fundamentally different from typical MBTI in lots of ways. In fact they can both be used to complement each other. So it's different, or not, depending on whether you want to be accura…
Thank you for sharing this. That is so weird. Having been part of an MBA program meant that my profile was reviewed through multiple similar tests, but I have not heard of that one.
The thing that jumped at me is that it is not some small companies that are using these. US Banks apparently used it with its private capital customers[1] ( I am almost curious as to how it was applied ).
[1]https://realcolors.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/11/US...
Re: Why companies are interested in Myers-Briggs types
#157Just ask what animal you'd most like to be and why. It's as useful as MB. There, I saved your company thousands. You're welcome.
Had a consultant come in and do the animal bit on what was essentially a non-profit board. It was a complete and total disaster.
Don't discount the team building aspects of a shared subject of scorn.
Re: Why companies are interested in Myers-Briggs types
#158> And that’s it—there’s simply very little data on how well the Myers-Briggs (and other type-based personality tests) measures personality and even less on how it might predict job performance. I was surprised there wasn't any mention of a very interesting issue here, i.e. MBTI and other typological instruments come with user manuals, training, etc., and those materials specifically say "do not use this for hiring".…
I just come out and say it? There’s nothing wrong with knowing you are a certain type. At least it’s helpful for me to point at the ‘challenges’ section and tell people ‘I do this, please keep poking me until I give you attention’. In the same way it’s helpful to have a literal definition of how other people think, because the idea that someone might deliberately go with a suboptimal idea because they value peace is…
Sure, I think it's OK to simply be of a type. You are also giving some simple affordances which is good. At the same time it's a pretty tricky and intriguing subtopic within personality type theory.
If you decide to stay on your type-script, your life will be more repetitive than it otherwise would. Many of the same problems, repeated. Your preferences will be less flexible by definition, so your scope of decision-making and even perceptual skill will be limited by subconscious pressure inputs, for example.
Also, you can more readily be manipulated by those who understand your blind spots better than you do. (This makes some people angry, but IMO it's better to embrace it and find a way to work on those)
However, to transcend one's own type requires intense learning, growth, and therefore stress. And the concepts here are so new that there is very little support available should you decide to really go in this direction.
Anyway. Personally I can understand either way. But the theoretical answer to "is having a personality type a problem" is both a hard no and a hard yes. This applies both for yourself and others as they interact with you.
Re: Why companies are interested in Myers-Briggs types
#159> And that’s it—there’s simply very little data on how well the Myers-Briggs (and other type-based personality tests) measures personality and even less on how it might predict job performance. I was surprised there wasn't any mention of a very interesting issue here, i.e. MBTI and other typological instruments come with user manuals, training, etc., and those materials specifically say "do not use this for hiring".…
I just come out and say it? There’s nothing wrong with knowing you are a certain type. At least it’s helpful for me to point at the ‘challenges’ section and tell people ‘I do this, please keep poking me until I give you attention’. In the same way it’s helpful to have a literal definition of how other people think, because the idea that someone might deliberately go with a suboptimal idea because they value peace is…
Personally, I dislike having labels on myself that describe behavior whether it be pseudo-science or science-science because I find myself "role-playing" those labels and semi-consciously using them to guide actions. Even for medically diagnosed disorders I'll end up unconsciously thinking "Well of course, I'm going to do X because I have disorder Y/personality type Z".
Re: Why companies are interested in Myers-Briggs types
#160Earlier quoted context omitted.
I just come out and say it? There’s nothing wrong with knowing you are a certain type. At least it’s helpful for me to point at the ‘challenges’ section and tell people ‘I do this, please keep poking me until I give you attention’. In the same way it’s helpful to have a literal definition of how other people think, because the idea that someone might deliberately go with a suboptimal idea because they value peace is…
Personally, I dislike having labels on myself that describe behavior whether it be pseudo-science or science-science because I find myself "role-playing" those labels and semi-consciously using them to guide actions. Even for medically diagnosed disorders I'll end up unconsciously thinking "Well of course, I'm going to do X because I have disorder Y/personality type Z".
This is easily one of the best comments in the thread, nice job being authentic to your experience! :-)
BTW have you ever gotten into acting, even on the side? Asking because your comment reminded me of some people I've known with similar experiences.