August 16, 2005
Personality Profile…
What can I say, everybody’s doing it! I took the Jung-Myers-Briggs Personality Profile. I’m sure my results wouldn’t surprise anyone. It turns out I am a Rational Mastermind (boy, I sure like the sound of that). Also called an INTJ (for Introverted, Intuitive, Thinking, Judging), there are a few of the things in the description that specifically called out to me:
To outsiders, INTJs may appear to project an aura of “definiteness”, of self-confidence. This self-confidence, sometimes mistaken for simple arrogance by the less decisive, is actually of a very specific rather than a general nature; its source lies in the specialized knowledge systems that most INTJs start building at an early age. When it comes to their own areas of expertise — and INTJs can have several — they will be able to tell you almost immediately whether or not they can help you, and if so, how. INTJs know what they know, and perhaps still more importantly, they know what they don’t know.
INTJs are perfectionists, with a seemingly endless capacity for improving upon anything that takes their interest. What prevents them from becoming chronically bogged down in this pursuit of perfection is the pragmatism so characteristic of the type: INTJs apply (often ruthlessly) the criterion “Does it work?” to everything from their own research efforts to the prevailing social norms. This in turn produces an unusual independence of mind, freeing the INTJ from the constraints of authority, convention, or sentiment for its own sake.
Arrogant? ME?!?! Can’t be! But I do think the “does it work?” question is particularly apt. As many of my posts ask whether moral codes are consistent with human nature, it shows I’m more than willing to toss conventional morality right out the window if I think it doesn’t work. And more than willing to simply disregard laws or actions of government if they don’t meet what I believe to be proper governance. I’ve always considered one my own flaws to be that I am so frequently right when I make a decision, that it causes me to sometimes believe I’m right until beaten over the head with the fact that I’m wrong.
Personal relationships, particularly romantic ones, can be the INTJ’s Achilles heel. While they are capable of caring deeply for others (usually a select few), and are willing to spend a great deal of time and effort on a relationship, the knowledge and self-confidence that make them so successful in other areas can suddenly abandon or mislead them in interpersonal situations.
This happens in part because many INTJs do not readily grasp the social rituals; for instance, they tend to have little patience and less understanding of such things as small talk and flirtation (which most types consider half the fun of a relationship). To complicate matters, INTJs are usually extremely private people, and can often be naturally impassive as well, which makes them easy to misread and misunderstand. Perhaps the most fundamental problem, however, is that INTJs really want people to make sense.
This sometimes results in a peculiar naivete’, paralleling that of many Fs — only instead of expecting inexhaustible affection and empathy from a romantic relationship, the INTJ will expect inexhaustible reasonability and directness.
Okay, I need to show this one to the wife. It might help her to understand why I act the way I do. I never did really “fit in” when I was growing up, and while I think I’ve done a good job grasping the mechanics of social interaction, the purpose is frequently beyond me. She, of course, is a very empathetic and feeling person, and has no understanding how I can take such a dispassionate approach to problems in interpersonal relationships. I always try to explain that I’m just an engineer, and so I want to look at the causes of the problems and possible solutions, pick a solution, and go with it. I may not look like I’m considering emotions in that calculus. In reality, though, I am considering emotions, but doing so in such a manner consistent with the role they play in my life, where they are subservient to logic and efficiency.
Oddly enough, Eric Cowperthwaite and Left Brain Female were also Rational Masterminds. I would speculate that a large portion of libertarian/anarchist folks, and especially libertarian/anarchist bloggers fall into this category. I think many of us don’t understand why the people in our offline life simply don’t make sense, and with our social issues find communication frequently easier over the internet with “people like us” than trying to understand the irrational folks we deal with in the meatspace world. I know I found myself, from my early teens, involved in the BBS world (even ran my own for a while), and blogging has been the natural progression of that trend. I’ll bet a large number of the LLP community are the same way.
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I would say it nailed me pretty good.
I am ENTJ. Like Brad, only extrovert.
The description is “FieldMarshal Rational”.
Tricky Dick Nixon was one of these…sweet.
http://keirsey.com/personality/ntej.html
I too am going to force my wife to read….wait…that’s a perfect example….”force my wife”? Yup, they pegged me pretty good.
Yep, I identified with the social aspects too – and my sister is INTJ as well – I suspect we got the mind-set from my parents, both of who would almost assuredly be INTJ. I’m pretty good at hiding it – most of the time – from my friends (but I have few that I consider close) but hubby who is ENTJ doesn’t always understand my need for family/personal time without any outside influence!