Mr. Personality

A couple of years ago I took one of those freebie Myers-Briggs personality profile tests. The results are fairly accurate.

I am INTJ. (Introverted, iNtuitive, Thinking, Judging)

“INTJs are very analytical individuals. [...] They tend to be very pragmatic and logical individuals, often with an individualistic bent and a low tolerance for spin or rampant emotionalism. [...] Hallmark features of the INTJ personality type include independence of thought, strong individualism and creativity. [...] Analyzing and formulating complex theories are among their greatest strengths.”

That’s me alright.  It went on to say…

Openness – “you seem to describe yourself as someone who is far more intellectually curious and sensitive to beauty than most. You might say that your beliefs are individualistic and frequently drift towards the unconventional, and that you enjoy your imagination and the exciting places it takes you!”

Conscientiousness – “you seem to describe yourself as someone who avoids foreseeable trouble through purposefully planning, and achieves success through persistence. From your responses it appears that you are reliable and prepared for life’s challenges.”

Extroversion – “you seem to describe yourself as someone who is quiet and somewhat withdrawn. Your answers describe you as someone who doesn’t need lots of other people around to have fun, and can sometimes find that people are tiring.”

Agreeableness – “you seem to describe yourself as someone who gets along with people well, especially once they have proved themselves trustworthy to you. Your responses suggest that you do have a healthy skepticism about others’ motives, but that doesn’t stop you from considering others to be basically honest and decent.”

Emotional Stability – “you seem to describe yourself as someone who is generally calm. Based on your responses, you come across as someone who can feel emotional or stressed out by some experiences, however your feelings tend to be warranted by the situation.”

I don’t think I agree entirely with this last assessment. That describes me as I was years ago, but I thought I had matured out of that. The last time I lost my temper was about 8 years ago, and it was fairly mild (a waiter brought the appetizer and the entrees at the same time and I went off on him). When I was younger I would flip out way too often. I’m happy that I have more control over myself now.

“INTJs are one of the rarest of the sixteen personality types, and account for about 1–4% of the population.”  I find it peculiar that so many bloggers fall into this type.  I suspect that even though we are rare in the general population, our personality traits draw us to blogging and we consequently make up a disproportionately higher percentage of the blogger population.

Examples of Real Life INTJ People: Arthur Ashe, C.S. Lewis, Gen. Colin Powell, Jane Austen, Lance Armstrong, Sir Isaac Newton, and Thomas Jefferson.

Examples of Fictional INTJ Characters: Clarice Starling and Hannibal Lecter, Lt. Ellen Ripley, Gandalf, Prof. Moriarty, Stewie Griffin, and Vito Corleone.