I've always been fascinated by the concept of personality types, even though I'm not sure it's scientifically valid. The problem with a sorting mechanism such as Myers-Briggs is that human beings cannot be easily lumped into 16 groups or however many there are. We're all unique snowflakes, each with a little bit of everything. We contain multitudes!
However, one thing about personality typing that was useful to me was the realization that people see the world and behave in different ways, each of which is normal for that particular person. I was always told, growing up, that I was different from the people around me, but what was mostly happening was that I belonged in a different personality bucket.
I actually took the Myers-Briggs test as part of a career planning workshop many years ago. I tested out as INFP (links here and here). These four letters stand for:
According to the Keirsey Temperament Sorter, the 16 Myers-Briggs personality types can be grouped into four temperaments: Artisans (who are rare), Guardians (the largest group), Idealists, and Rationals. INFPs, including me, belong in the Idealist group. This is even more of a gross over-simplification of human personality but I can tell you first-hand that there are noticeable differences between the four groups. I learned this when doing the following exercise - you can try it yourself before continuing to read this.
Suppose that you are on a desert island. What three things do you want to have? What three people do you want to have with you?
In our career workshop, we were divided into four groups based on our temperaments and asked to come up with answers to these questions. Our group, the Idealists, decided that what we wanted was a supply of books, a good Internet connection, and I forget what the third was. Our three people were (I think) a loved one, a good friend, and a person to take care of all of the practical day-to-day stuff. We came to a reasonably quick agreement on this.
After all the groups were ready, the workshop organizer had each group present their answers. From long experience, she had the Idealists go first. When we started our lists, the Guardians all hooted with laughter - their list of three things was a hunting knife, a supply of water, and I forget what the third was but it was also something very practical. We protested: we thought of this! We had a guy to take care of it for us!
Anyway, the moral of the story, if there is one, is that all of us are different and somehow we all need to get along regardless. And some of us aren't very practical: for example, don't expect me to know how to change your tire (or mine). And it was lovely to see you but I need some downtime now.
June 2026