INTP

I just followed a rabbit-trail online to the Meyers-Briggs personality test and ended up with this analysis:

Introverted (I) 93%	Extraverted (E) 7%
Intuitive (N) 59%	Sensing (S) 41%
Thinking (T) 60%	Feeling (F) 40%
Perceiving (P) 82%	Judging (J) 18%

Without even having known the categories beforehand (or more accurately, having remembered the categories, as I'm pretty sure I took one of these before), this doesn't surprise me much except for the last one. However, once I read up on it, I realized that I simply hadn't understood what the P value meant within the context of this test, and that it was very accurate indeed. This shows the danger of overusing concepts (something I may write about later because it is both Jamesian and very applicable in this era).

There are links at the bottom of the results page that tell you more about each four-letter result, and reading the bullet points makes me think of me, which I suppose is the point. I was happy to see that "Computer Programmers" was on the list of suggested career paths, since I currently am one. "Forestry and Park Rangers" is also on the list and is amusing to me because I toyed with the idea of becoming one for a while; the same goes for judges except that I'm still toying with that one. Perhaps my favorite descriptive bullet point is that INTPs "have no desire to lead or follow." I never gave it much thought but I have always hated the question, "Are you a leader or a follower?" I now feel empowered to legitamately take the unspoken third option, which is mu.

Since my Thinking and Feeling scores are pretty close (keeping in mind that this is a 46-question multiple-choice test) I was curious to see the info on INFP. That also sounds a lot like me, and that list includes writers, counselors, teachers and musicians, all roles which I take on to some degree or another. In fact, the rabbit-trail started with a search for "counselor," and the impetus for that was that I feel like I have been taking that role more often recently, and I enjoy it very much. I don't like to meddle, but I also can't stand to see strained relationships. When I sense that people will be open to listening to me, I talk with them and try to find a way to improve their connections with each other. My payoff is getting to see happier human beings, and I'm hard-pressed to find things that are more enjoyable than that.

(I noticed during the course of writing the above paragraph that my Intuitive and Sensing score was closer yet--by two whole points! I will claim that my Intuition wins out and is what allowed me to first Perceive the closeness of Thinking and Feeling, because I checked out the variations with Sensing and they definitely aren't for me. "Results-oriented?" Bah! Who has time to finish things when there are so many new things to begin?)

I have all but decided that when I leave my current job, something I have no plans to do currently but will almost certainly be considering in five years' time, I will not be seeking another job in the computer field. Hell, that field might not even exist in five years! I kid, yet I am beginning to feel the stirrings of a call to do something more profound. Not necessarily something big or famous ("I'm gonna build an airport. Put my name on it.") but something that has a real, positive, lasting effect on human life, or at least on a few humans' lives. Right now, I'm thinking that's either a counselor, a judge, a musician, or an elected official, but we IN(T|F)Ps like to keep our options open ;)

-f