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Poll HN: What is your personality type?

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Re: Poll HN: What is your personality type?

#71

Post by jakebellacera »

lxt wrote: post #48
merloen wrote: post #41

I get the I/E distinction, I understand the F/T dimension, but I've never read a good explanation of N/S and J/P. Anyone care to explain?

I apologize in advance for the hand waving vagueness, but here's how I think of it. N=abstract thinker, likes ideas and concepts and big picture S=concrete thinker, likes real things and details J=likes rules and systems and binary partitions P=thinks in terms of guidelines and heuristics and rules of thumb and grey areas. Most programmers are Ns, but I have met quite a few DBAs who are Ss. I'm a P (could you tell) a…

> I like to make the joke that Ps are always 5 minutes late, but don't think of that as being late ;)

As someone who got "INTP," I would say that is probably accurate.

Re: Poll HN: What is your personality type?

#73

Post by gojomo »

cowmoo wrote: post #49

Uhh, I really hate INTJ personalities, most are so uptight centered on being judgmental. The "worker bee" personality that I see at IT/software places. INFP ftw, feeling up and perceiving people over thinking and judging people!

As an INTP, I hear ya, INFP! But those $@!%#& hyperliteral nit-picky TLDR-craving conclusion-jumping downvote-happy INTJs have a clear plurality here.

We're going to need a ?N?P coalition — INFP, INTP, ENFP, ENTP — to retain a little space for some poetic truth and beauty on HN.

There are barely enough ?S?? here to be worth courting. They're probably out dancing and drinking themselves to death during prime HN submission/comment hours, anyway. But just in case any S are reading this, all I have to say to you is: herd immunity and antibiotic resistance are real things! Use some protection! (Ah, damn, that was a little J of me. Sometimes I put on a J or E mask, but it's just for laughs, honest.)

Re: Poll HN: What is your personality type?

#74

Post by _xhok »

Everyone saying "I don't need to take a test to know what kind of person I am" is missing the point of MBTI. It's not a test you take to judge yourself, but one that helps you understand other people.

The sixteen types aren't buckets that people fall neatly into. What they represent are sixteen hypothetical extreme individuals. The model ENTJ would be exactly as described on personality type pages--demanding, unfeeling, unafraid to tell others what dumbshits they are. But no one is a complete ENTJ. The helpfulness of MBTI is that when someone does things that a complete ENTJ might do, it helps to know what their motivation might be, and why they're driven to be that way. When the same person acts like an ENFP, same thing.

Re: Poll HN: What is your personality type?

#75

Post by chavesn »

sliverstorm wrote: post #31
hacknat wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, but I'm also not surprised to see INTJ as the most up-voted type.

It's at least consistent pseudo-science. I opened this page, saw it was Meyers-Briggs, and immediately thought "Welp, I bet there are a lot of ENTJ and INTJ". Lo and behold.

Exactly. I guess I don't totally understand all the complaints about "Pseudo-science" if its so consistent. That at least means something. This is the third time I've taken the test, and given the same result every time.

As I understand it, ENTJ and INTJ are no more than 9% of the general population[1] (12% max, if male only), and yet they are dominating the poll here; and that very much aligns with types expected to be common among the Hacker News population. That has got to mean something.

But then, I guess that's why I'm not a Guardian type[2] (Enforcing/Certifying specifically[3]).

[1]: http://www.capt.org/mbti-assessment/estimated-frequencies.ht... [2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guardian_temperament [3]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keirsey_Temperament_Sorter

Re: Poll HN: What is your personality type?

#76

Post by xixi77 »

tokenadult wrote: post #53

Obligatory references on the subject of the unvalidated Myers-Briggs Type Indicator®: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-leadership/myers-b... "Now, 50 years after the first time anyone paid money for the test, the Myers-Briggs legacy is reaching the end of the family line. The youngest heirs don’t want it. And it’s not clear whether organizations should, either. . . . . "Yet despite its widespread use and vas…

Lots of critical responses here.

What is happening is that you can think of a personality profile as a vector in very high-dimensional space. MBTI presents a basis in a 4-dimensional subspace of that. How well it works for a particular person depends on how her personality aligns with that basis.

A lot people will test near the middle on the MBTI characteristics, and say that the test does not work for them. If most of the population is near the middle, statistical studies won't show much validation for MBTI either.

Now, none of that means that the test has little value -- it actually has a lot of value, but only for people who test at relatively high scores. For example, I generally test as either ENTP or INTP -- and since I'm near the middle of E/I scale, it does not tell much either way. my N, T, and P, however, are quite extreme (I've done quite a few of these, and not once have I had a case when my N or T score was not at the end of the range, P nearly there too) -- so the descriptions and advice for these types that I've seen have been quite relevant and helpful.

Re: Poll HN: What is your personality type?

#78

Post by Tloewald »

tokenadult wrote: post #53

Obligatory references on the subject of the unvalidated Myers-Briggs Type Indicator®: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-leadership/myers-b... "Now, 50 years after the first time anyone paid money for the test, the Myers-Briggs legacy is reaching the end of the family line. The youngest heirs don’t want it. And it’s not clear whether organizations should, either. . . . . "Yet despite its widespread use and vas…

If you'd prefer a somewhat better regarded personality measure, there's Big 5.

e.g.

http://www.outofservice.com/bigfive/

(Not sure if this is a good example but... Google)

Re: Poll HN: What is your personality type?

#79

Post by chavesn »

mgkimsal wrote: post #19
octo_t wrote: post #2

I was under the impression the Meyer-Briggs was essentially pseudo-science?

Typical ESFP response....

Actually, I wouldn't be surprised at all if those who jump in to denounce Myers Briggs have similar personality types.

Among all those I know who've taken it, myself included, it's been strongly indicative of their personality. And as I noted in another comment, three different tests have yielded the same results for me.

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