Seymour
Vaguely Precise
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2009
- Messages
- 1,579
- MBTI Type
- INFP
- Enneagram
- 5w4
- Instinctual Variant
- sx/so
Ars Technica posted an article on computer programmers and the Big Five. Here's the core bit:
All that generally makes sense to me, with the caveat that the kind of "smarts" IQ tests measure are useful for programming, but there are a wide range of intelligences that aren't measured by IQ. Also note that even though people with high Openness to Experience programmed better, being a programmer isn't correlated with higher Openness to Experience.
It's interesting that some studies of programmers and MBTI type suggest that computer programmers tend to be more Sensing and Sensors tended to be better programmers. That result, when compared to result of the above studies, goes against the normal correlation between Openness to Experience and MBTI intuition (0.72 correlation, which is pretty strong).
Cathleen O'Grady said:The trait with the strongest link to programming skill was intelligence, with individuals who scored higher on intelligence tests producing code with fewer errors. Openness to experience was also vitally important, as Gnambs expected. Conscientiousness was too, although to a lesser extent.
As for the more popular stereotypes, the only one that held any water was the expectation of introversion: people with lower extraversion had higher programming scores. Neuroticism and agreeableness, however, didn’t display any strong link to programming.
All that generally makes sense to me, with the caveat that the kind of "smarts" IQ tests measure are useful for programming, but there are a wide range of intelligences that aren't measured by IQ. Also note that even though people with high Openness to Experience programmed better, being a programmer isn't correlated with higher Openness to Experience.
It's interesting that some studies of programmers and MBTI type suggest that computer programmers tend to be more Sensing and Sensors tended to be better programmers. That result, when compared to result of the above studies, goes against the normal correlation between Openness to Experience and MBTI intuition (0.72 correlation, which is pretty strong).