Learn About Your Host!

I took one of those Myers-Briggs personality indicator tests the other day. If you have never done this, I highly recommend it - the results have always been eerily accurate. Way back in the early 90s, searching for something to do with my life, I first read about Myers-Briggs and took the test. In the years since, family members, friends, and my wife have taken it, and they all come away astounded.

For more background info on Myers-Briggs, you can see here.

Anyway, I am an INFP.

There's a pretty interesting website out there on the sixteen personality types used by Myers-Briggs (which builds on the work of famous psychologist Carl Jung) called, simply enough, the Personality Page.

Here is their summary of the INFP individual:


The Idealist

As an INFP, your primary mode of living is focused internally, where you deal with things according to how you feel about them, or how they fit into your personal value system. Your secondary mode is external, where you take things in primarily via your intuition.

INFPs, more than other iNtuitive Feeling types, are focused on making the world a better place for people. Their primary goal is to find out their meaning in life. What is their purpose? How can they best serve humanity in their lives? They are idealists and perfectionists, who drive themselves hard in their quest for achieving the goals they have identified for themselves.

INFPs are highly intuitive about people. They rely heavily on their intuitions to guide them, and use their discoveries to constantly search for value in life. They are on a continuous mission to find the truth and meaning underlying things. Every encounter and every piece of knowledge gained gets sifted through the INFP's value system, and is evaluated to see if it has any potential to help the INFP define or refine their own path in life. The goal at the end of the path is always the same - the INFP is driven to help people and make the world a better place.

Generally thoughtful and considerate, INFPs are good listeners and put people at ease. Although they may be reserved in expressing emotion, they have a very deep well of caring and are genuinely interested in understanding people. This sincerity is sensed by others, making the INFP a valued friend and confidante.

An INFP can be quite warm with people he or she knows well.

INFPs do not like conflict, and go to great lengths to avoid it. If they must face it, they will always approach it from the perspective of their feelings. In conflict situations, INFPs place little importance on who is right and who is wrong. They focus on the way that the conflict makes them feel, and indeed don't really care whether or not they're right. They don't want to feel badly. This trait sometimes makes them appear irrational and illogical in conflict situations. On the other hand, INFPs make very good mediators, and are typically good at solving other people's conflicts, because they intuitively understand people's perspectives and feelings, and genuinely want to help them.

INFPs are flexible and laid-back, until one of their values is violated. In the face of their value system being threatened, INFPs can become aggressive defenders, fighting passionately for their cause. When an INFP has adopted a project or job which they're interested in, it usually becomes a "cause" for them. Although they are not detail-oriented individuals, they will cover every possible detail with determination and vigor when working for their "cause".

When it comes to the mundane details of life maintenance, INFPs are typically completely unaware of such things. They might go for long periods without noticing a stain on the carpet, but carefully and meticulously brush a speck of dust off of their project booklet.

INFPs do not like to deal with hard facts and logic. Their focus on their feelings and the Human Condition makes it difficult for them to deal with impersonal judgment. They don't understand or believe in the validity of impersonal judgment, which makes them naturally rather ineffective at using it. Most INFPs will avoid impersonal analysis, although some have developed this ability and are able to be quite logical. Under stress, it's not uncommon for INFPs to mis-use hard logic in the heat of anger, throwing out fact after (often inaccurate) fact in an emotional outburst.

INFPs have very high standards and are perfectionists. Consequently, they are usually hard on themselves, and don't give themselves enough credit. INFPs may have problems working on a project in a group, because their standards are likely to be higher than other members' of the group. In group situations, they may have a "control" problem. The INFP needs to work on balancing their high ideals with the requirements of every day living. Without resolving this conflict, they will never be happy with themselves, and they may become confused and paralyzed about what to do with their lives.

INFPs are usually talented writers. They may be awkard and uncomfortable with expressing themselves verbally, but have a wonderful ability to define and express what they're feeling on paper. INFPs also appear frequently in social service professions, such as counselling or teaching. They are at their best in situations where they're working towards the public good, and in which they don't need to use hard logic.

INFPs who function in their well-developed sides can accomplish great and wonderful things, which they will rarely give themselves credit for. Some of the great, humanistic catalysts in the world have been INFPs.


Now, my wife, who knows me better than anyone else on the planet, thinks this is about 75 percent me. Me, who knows me better than anyone else knows me, thinks this is about 85 percent me.

In the past, I've always been an INTP. "T" for Thinking rather than "F" for Feeling. That "T" makes me of the type "Scientist" rather than "Idealist," or at least according to those who've written the Personality Page. I think the reason why I've transfered over to INFP from INTP is probably due to the way I've answered some of the more emotionally-charged questions on the test. Over the past two-and-a-half years I've been on quite the roller-coaster, physically, mentally, economically and financially. Existentially, you could say. The dispassionate physicist-wannabe has now been replaced by a man battered and bruised a bit by life, and feeling it (or at least admitting to feeling it on an anonymous online test).

Still though, with the exception of the overtly touchy-feely passages in the quoted paragraphs above, and noting that I generally avoid normal (read: extroverted) sociological interaction, that's a pretty accurate assessment of the traffic that habitually flows between my ears, twenty-four hours a day, sixty minutes an hour, sixty seconds a minute.