[IxDA Discuss] What's your Personality Type? (Related to: NowHiring Leonardo DaVinci?)

[Mark Canlas]

- What is your type?

INTJ

- What is your occupation? (Please be as specific as possible.)

Currently, I'm a Perl programmer in the content management department. In a
previous life, I was a web developer/designer.

- How does knowledge of your type impact your thoughts about your 
career, design, other people, and yourself - as a designer and as a 
person?

I type people, constantly. Even characters in TV and cartoons. I've read
lots (perhaps too much) about the MBTI. It's helped me become more confident
in myself, as well as more respectful of other people's methods and
perspectives, however wrong they may be (MBTI joke). I've also recognized
going through that everything-fits-MBTI phase. It's not fair to box people
in like that. Moderation is key.

As a designer, I've wondered if a dualistic approach would be the best for
approaching any given situation. MBTI is very polar, dichotimous, so why not
provide those types of solutions. Not one size fits all, but two. It was
just a thought, I haven't put it into practice.

- What was your experience when you learned your type? Was it 
meaningful to you?

Learning my type was absolutely meaningful to me. I think especially for the
loner/INTJ crowd, it's a sort of validation. That someone, somewhere not
only understands who you are and how you function at the core, but shares
your same quirks and isms. It's quite eye-opening after having been
misunderstood or anxious for so long. It's not *your* fault for being
difficult to understand, we're just different.

- Has personality type ever played a role in your research or designs?

I'm currently on a quest to find what makes Apple design so strong. I think
it's a sort of INTJ-esque, monster, one-man-rules-all view of design. Like,
not design by committee. No compromises. A true artist's vision, unbridled
by constraint or even reality.

- If you are outside the US, is there different or additional test that 
is prominently used?

Still inside the US, I think. But the "Enneagrams" (sp) test, sort of a
rival/companion to the MBTI. Some say MBTI measures *what* you do, and
Enneagrams (needs proper spelling) measure *why* you do.

- What else?

Open to answer any questions on the MBTI, although I'm very behind on the
list.

-Mark