LittleWyvern.com

Paul Phillips just wrote about personality types in his blog, and since all the cool kids are doing it…

Actually, this is something that I haven’t written about in quite a while and there is an argument to be made about it being due. In all seriousness though, you would probably be surprised at how often I actually think about this sort of thing. And if you go on and actually read my personality profile you might catch a hint as to why.

Way back in the days of high school I was forced to take a personality test. I’m sure I had to take a similar test long before even that – I took a lot of tests as a kid, trying to figure out just what exactly was wrong with me (/sw) – but the exam in high school is the first test of its kind that I actually remember. I answered a few questions as honestly as possible – although, I could write an entire post about how being asked to answer personality questions immediately launches oneself into the realm of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle – and when it was all over I had been successfully quantified and classified. I suppose there is something to be said about the test, though there are equally strong arguments whether it’s for the good or bad, because I retook the same test several times in the years since and the result has always been the same. I am an INTP: an (I)ntroverted i(N)tuitive (T)hinking (P)erceiving. Or otherwise put, Introverted Thinking with Extraverted Intuition.

Complements of PaulP’s blog I came across a summary of what it means to be INTP. I like to think of myself as a unique spirit, but being so casually tossed into one of sixteen categories seems to diminish that sensation. My only solace is in knowing that INTP only accounts for 3% of the world’s population. That is a respectably small fraction.

Up until my graduation from college I would have agreed that nearly everything in that summary describes my personality and thought process. My life has undergone some restructuring over the past two years and I have been making conscious efforts to change certain aspects of my life and outlook, but for the most part I am still described by that page. I find it all tremendously comforting.

My mind works in a way that confuses most people. I don’t think I can know anyone for very long without eventually having a conversation that ends with the other person saying, “What the hell?” I could fill pages of posts recounting times in my life where the different aspects of my INTP personality have landed me in an awkward or difficult situation.

I worry about very specific things that others would never stop to consider while feeling completely apathetic to the cares of most everyone else.

I carry on internal conversations with myself almost constantly, even when talking to someone else. All too frequently I might suddenly stop paying attention to what you’re saying because the thought in my head just became more interesting.

When presented with a new situation I automatically imagine its worst-case-scenario.

When given a set of rules, I reflexively search for the exception.

Sometimes, for no reason at all, I will take a few words or numbers and just for fun break them apart into their individual letters/digits and rearrange them into new orders that I find more interesting. I remember one time when I was watching a movie with some friends when I suddenly started laughing out loud. Instead of watching the movie I had spent the past hour trying to come up with a 4 letter word that, when its letters were rearranged in every possible way, would always spell another word. I couldn’t even begin to tell my friends what was so funny.

I was riding the Metra into the city and watched as the girl I was with played a version of solitaire with a deck of cards. I spaced out of the conversation for a while and instead tried to determine the fewest number of moves you had to make in her game before you could determine that you had lost.

I lie awake in bed for about 45 minutes on average before I can slow my train of thought enough to fall asleep. On occasion I lie awake until morning. – Since I started writing a journal that time has been greatly reduced. Although, now I spend at least that much time at a keyboard, instead. >8-/

On several occasions I have solved a relatively complex problem and presented the correct answer only to realize that I had no idea how I went about finding it. I used to get really angry because my teachers would fail me on quizzes even when all the answers were right. They said I needed to show my work.

I used to memorize things just to see if I could. I spent one afternoon in college memorizing the Gettysburg address. The next day I managed to memorize pi to 100 decimal places before getting bored.

My friend was telling me about her new apartment and casually listed the dimensions of the different rooms. I couldn’t pay attention to the rest of what she was saying until I had calculated the total volume of her apartment.

It’s a sickness. One which I have actually made some progress in quieting, sure, but which I know will always be a large part of who I am. And while I don’t hold out hope of finding someone who really understands the tornado inside my head, it is a great relief to know that there are a few others out there fighting the same issues.

Do any of you know which personality you are?