Journey To An Understanding

I came across an interesting article via Slashdot today that sparked a flurry of web browsing ending at Wikipedia (which happens alot). The article was by a writer at a Mac centered news site, but had nothing to do with Macs. Instant Messaging for Introverts was a very interesting read on a subject that I've always noticed about myself. I hate instant messaging. While the article is an interesting read, its merely the starting point of a journey to understanding.

This article made me think about a personality test that I took a while back. The test was based on a popular set of personailty types called Myers-Briggs. There are a total of 16 personality types according o their model. The result of the test came back as INTP, which is described as Introverted iNtuitive Thinking Perceiving. I took multiple tests for error-checking and they returned the same result. The tests themselves gave a short description and suitable careers, but Wikipedia gave a much more thorough description. Oddly enough, wikipedia says that INTPs only make up about 3.3% of the population, now I know why I don't identify with people.(Incidentally the career list included computer programmer, which was a nice reassurance). While the description mostly suited me, I kept browsing.

There is another closely related theory of personality types called Socionics which was much more interesting. Each Myers-Briggs type has an associated Socionics type. INTP maps to an ILI Socionics type, which stands for Intuitive Logical Introvert. The description of which was much more detailed and hit home personally. Reading the article instantly gave me a better understanding of myself and other people. It was like I was reading a biography of myself.

Here are a bunch of quotes from the article on Intuitive Logical Introverts:

• "ILIs have very well-developed imaginative abilities, and may spend a great deal of time by simply thinking. ILIs are able to create a complex and intricate inner world."
• "... prefer to observe and gather an understanding of a situation rather than actively participate."
• "Most ILIs are largely indifferent to the organization of their living areas."
• "ILIs analyze situations and make decisions in a very logical and scientific manner."
• "ILIs tend to be unconfident and often nervous about interacting with other people"
• " If left to their own devices, they often simply do nothing at all rather than interact with the outside world."
• "To many an ILI, nothing is worse than routine, menial, household tasks."
• "ILIs long for stable personal relationships with other individuals based on mutual trust and understanding, where deeper and private feelings and experiences can be easily shared. However, they lack the initiative to establish such relationships and usually expect others to make gestures in that area, admiring those who do so."
• "ILIs naturally possess a strong command of logical systems such as formal logic and mathematics."

There is a lot more to Socionics then just 16 types. I am still reading and gaining perspective. As I continue to learn more, I realize that this is an answer to my last post. Well, not an answer, its a start. I would encourage anyone who wants to find out more about themselves and their relations with other people to find and take a Myers-Briggs test, translate it to the associaed Socionics type, and read about themselves.