Typing people on the internet

[rav3n]

yeah. that's true, about short-term satisfaction. like the entire day where i thought i was an INFJ

i think though, that if we pull back and ask, so what if we and/or they have their type wrong?, it's not really that big of a deal. even those of us who have gotten quite familiar with MBTI have occasional oh-shit moments where we realize we've had something off. not that i'm advocating ignorance. just that my day as an INFJ didn't have many significant negative impacts, really, besides feeling dumb later. i just was trying to use a hammer on a screw, so to speak. it wasn't working, and i figured that out soon enough.

it would be fascinating to meet in person with someone of your type who is very, very different than you.

has anyone had this experience?

Yes. One of my close friends is also an ENTJ. We're react differently in social situations but if it's business related, our approach is very similar. I've yet to convince her to take an Enneagram test but I'm positive she's not the same. My guess would be that in her stacking, she leads with "so".

 

[redacted]

it would be fascinating to meet in person with someone of your type who is very, very different than you.

has anyone had this experience?

If I'm an INTP, then yes, I'm quite different from many of them, just because of my social intuition and interest.

If I'm an ENTP, then yes also, as I know at least two ENTPs who are in the top 5 most extroverted (dictionary definition not MBTI) people I've ever met.

This is why I've been stuck.

Edit: re-reading that, I must say that's not at all the main reason I'm stuck.

 

[Kaizer]

Evan, without the help of people willing to type others on the Internet, I'd still be stumbling around blindly as an xNTx. A few people were generous enough with their time and efforts, particularly Kasper, to point me in the right direction.

given how easy or natural interaction with some people was, being an NT, once I'd learned the seeming minimum enough bit about MBTI, provided the best explanation yet in terms of as much of a wholesome system as it seemed was available and quite interesting at that. I though had been relatively very sure of my type before I started forming and going beyond my own type and venturing into the seemingly infinite combinations of inter type interaction. I say infinite because of the variation in phenotypes within one type. also, it seems to me that INTPs have an undue advantage when it comes to MBTI.. that though might be a bias of mine.

Once type was ascertained, reading and learning more about it has helped me to understand some of my own knee-jerk reactions or approaches to problem solving.

Yes it did explain my interaction and reactions and the way I went about perceiving things and projecting my own perception. This of course led to seeing how others perceived me and hence the kind of reactions I elicited.

So I have to protest your thread to some degree although I do agree that MBTI or any sociological or psychological theories aren't exacting sciences and shouldn't be considered as such.

Okay, I guess I should make my point more explicit...

I'm not saying other people can't help you gain perspective on yourself, or even have valid insights about your personality that you aren't conscious of.

I'm just saying it should always be taken with a grain of salt.

Body language is ~50% of communication.

I tend to value others' input quite a bit, given its an observer's POV based input, but my natural bias is in favor of going more by my assessment of it than not, and so I agree with the with a grain of salt bit; And even though the endeavor should always be to overcome one's biases I don't think one truly ever escapes that loop. hence, the awareness and self-awareness recursive loops with a tempering by the principles and analysis sieves can possibly, and do indeed imo, help one. Point being that overcoming one's biases is a continuous process that is likely to almost never come to an end.

 

[animenagai]

Well you obviously have to be careful, but honestly, I've had a pretty high success rate typing people on the net. A lot of people have in fact done the test later and confirm my guesses. You just need to know what to look for. I think a good knowledge of each type as a cohesive whole trumps typing letter by letter. You need to get a 'feel' of the person behind the screen in general rather than just rigid cues.

 

[Kasper]

Evan, without the help of people willing to type others on the Internet, I'd still be stumbling around blindly as an xNTx. A few people were generous enough with their time and efforts, particularly Kasper, to point me in the right direction.

I'd have to go back to our old correspondence to be sure but I don't think I actually typed you, I agree with Evan in the sense that it's usually too presumptuous to claim to be able to type someone online as we all have our own biases influencing us, pointing someone in the direction of information that may be helpful is usually as far as I go. And I totally agree with you in that much is helpful.

I do believe you would have typed yourself without my help, the only thing I was able to do was offer information I believed would be helpful that may have taken you longer to discover on your own. Ultimately you did exactly what people should do with MBTI, you discovered your type yourself. I'm glad to have been able to help, but I simply had access to the right information for you at the time.

Similarly for me I had people suggest I look at the option of ENTP when I was thinking myself an INTP, their suggestions helped direct me to investigate the possibility which was helpful. People with better knowledge of particular areas can be very helpful so long as we do remember that info tends to come with biases attached. However, without other people suggesting or providing information self typing can take longer, of course the side effect is some people can be unduly influenced, the answer however is not to stop people from typing it's being sure that you're making up your own mind.