You Can't Make Mistakes.

Testing… Testing. Is this thing on.

We are always, it seems, interested in measuring or coding personality. I read this article [PDF] this morning over my coffee and found it fascinating. The results aren’t necessarily fascinating, but the idea is.

The gist is: can we something about the personality of an individual based on their e-mail address? This is an age-old question, of course. The primary use of astrology, in this author’s estimation, has been to parse personality traits. For example, Virgos are particularly mercurial. Their interests wander and range vastly. Is this true? Well, it probably is, for some.

The difference between the former and latter types of personality profiling is that the former uses a trait generated by the individual in question, whereas the latter has very little to do with them, at least on the surface. Then again, perhaps there are more factors that we are not considering, such as weather, personalities of parents and mood/temper changes based on time of year. Who knows?

Then there is the personality inventory. I took my first one a few years ago as part of a study conducted by a counseling psychology student for her thesis project. She was testing the Minnesota Multi-phasic Personality Inventory. I’m not sure about the particulars. Regardless, the questions are tricky and vague, but their compiled results are supposed to tell you something about your personality. My test indicated that I either had a personality disorder, or was a genius. Now, I don’t think that I am a genius, not even a little, but it was the more comforting alternative. There was more to it than that, something about frequencies, blah blah. Boring stuff. Sort of.

It made me interested in these types of tests though. Do they really tell us anything about ourselves, and, if so, what?

A few years later, I took the Myers-Briggs test. This one I liked. The results are a bit more human-readable—not that psychologists are not human, but well, you get what I mean. Since taking this, I have always tested the same way, which is also interesting. The questions on different exams will vary greatly, but they are designed to indicate personality traits when answered in a specific way.

I am an ENTJ [Extraversion - iNtuition - Thinking - Judging], apparently.

You have the following traits as options: Attitudes—Extraverted or Introverted, Functions—Intuitive or Sensing, Thinking or Feeling, and Lifestyle—Judging and Perceiving.

Here are a couple of tests for your enjoyment. These are obviously just intended for online amusement, not for real use. These type of assessments are best administered by a professional. But, then, when have we ever cared about that. Each one takes about 4-5 minutes. If you have a few minutes to kill take one—or more—and post the results as a comment here. It would be interesting to see what sort of personalities we all have, wouldn’t it?

A general Myers-Briggs assessment

An assessment for programmers

An interesting assessment with sliders

Well, that should help you to waste about 15 minutes today. Try it out and post the results.