Managing Developers: Understanding Work Styles and Individual Needs

As a developer, I don't find this disrespectful. While people may not fit neatly into these kinds of categories, there are common personality continuums that developers (and all people for that matter) tend to fall into.

Just like with "learning styles", there is likely a way each person works best.

It's important to remember that no matter how detailed or grossly you judge someone, you're not going to capture it all. So what?

Superficial or disrespectful or whatever, I don't see any reason to delve into why broad types are useful, when they are shown to be. As a gamer, the "types of gamers" has been the difference between virtual life and death, many times over. Be it PvP, raiding, or completion goals.

Like you, I'm fairly confident that developers don't fit into these "categories" as cleanly because they aren't addressing the work environment (ie process). Conway's Law has been shown to be a reliable indicator of developer action. Once you get away from that (self-directed teams), some sort of personality matrix like this might become visible, but it's unlikely you'll ever see it.