Poll HN: What is your personality type? | Hacker News Reader

Poll HN: What is your personality type?

120 pointsjusthw125 comments

Just curious HN. What is your personality type? If you're not aware of the 16 personalities learn more here[1,2]. If you have not taken the test, do here[3].

Don't forget to up vote the poll to get more data.

Inspired by, http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2013/08/fun-friday-what-is-your-myers-briggs-personality-type.html

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personality_type 2. http://www.personalitypage.com/high-level.html 3. http://www.16personalities.com/free-personality-test

Visualize this poll: http://hnlike.com/hncharts/chart/?id=7033047

View on HN

I was under the impression the Meyer-Briggs was essentially pseudo-science?

The test is rubbish. On the other hand, much like a horoscope, it provides a basis for conversation and reflection.

Given that it apparently was (is?) being used as an HR screening tool, I'm afraid it's not always harmless conversation fodder.

Eh, just learn the test well enough that you can figure out what they want, and then give them the result which gets you hired.

In general, investing energy in deceiving people would have a greater cost than landing one job vs another would have a benefit.

not it wouldn't. it takes no effort at all to see what people expect or game these tests.

Yes, no, and maybe. The typical MBTI only reveals to you exactly what you had told it moments before, so it is very accurate. Test results will change, however, because you change over time.

Interesting counterpoint - more than one test-giver has told me that, no, in fact, your 'score' doesn't change. I don't believe that for a moment, because taking the test is rather mood dependent - I've taken MB multiple times, and while overall, I come out similar in some areas (always an I, for example), the T and F have changed on occasion. It make total sense - my view of things changes over time - but these administrators were rather adamant that it doesn't change.

I guess if I'm an INTJ, taking the test the next day, I wouldn't expect to be an ESFP, but... over 10 years, I wouldn't be surprised to see an INTJ get a different 'score'.

Me too. What is pseudo-science doing on HN?

There are many pseudo-coders here.

And pseudo-entrepreneurs (who may be real coders)

Typical ESFP response....

Is this a reference to something? I have a vague memory of a show/movie where someone said that same thing about someones refutation of astrology. Something like: "typical aries" or whatever. I just can't remember what it was.

It's more of a meme (in the original sense) or trope than a specific reference.

Actually, I wouldn't be surprised at all if those who jump in to denounce Myers Briggs have similar personality types.

Among all those I know who've taken it, myself included, it's been strongly indicative of their personality. And as I noted in another comment, three different tests have yielded the same results for me.

my results have been similar over the years, but have varied a bit. I was a bit more surprised that my IQ percentile didn't budge one bit over 30 years (tested as a kid, teen and adult).

When I first discovered this test, I made all my friends take it. Out of them, two stood out as highly skeptical to the whole concept, and disagreeing with the resulting type.

Somewhere at the bottom of the description for their type, and only for their type out of the 16, it mentioned specifically that this type 'hates these kinds of things' (or something like that).

Typical Model-D kafkatrap [1] :-)

    [1]: http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=2122

I agree, but I'm also not surprised to see INTJ as the most up-voted type.

Same. I think this poll and Myers-Briggs are only interesting insofar as they are a reflection of how we want to see ourselves.

I've variously gotten ENTJ or INTJ over the years.

It's at least consistent pseudo-science. I opened this page, saw it was Meyers-Briggs, and immediately thought "Welp, I bet there are a lot of ENTJ and INTJ". Lo and behold.

Exactly. I guess I don't totally understand all the complaints about "Pseudo-science" if its so consistent. That at least means something. This is the third time I've taken the test, and given the same result every time.

As I understand it, ENTJ and INTJ are no more than 9% of the general population[1] (12% max, if male only), and yet they are dominating the poll here; and that very much aligns with types expected to be common among the Hacker News population. That has got to mean something.

But then, I guess that's why I'm not a Guardian type[2] (Enforcing/Certifying specifically[3]).

[1]: http://www.capt.org/mbti-assessment/estimated-frequencies.ht... [2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guardian_temperament [3]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keirsey_Temperament_Sorter

Yup, see for example: http://science.tumblr.com/post/13853183116/the-big-five-pers...

Take note that the Big five, the other major personality typology, though more empirical, is not without problems either. http://differentialclub.wdfiles.com/local--files/personality...

Yet the poll-results show that HN is predominantly INTP/INTJ, which Myers-Brigg would predict for this audience!

I was thinking the same thing ;)

Even more interesting given that those two are among the rarest archetypes in the general population by some estimates: http://www.capt.org/mbti-assessment/estimated-frequencies.ht...

Also, no wonder we're all "judgmental".

A group of cows is a herd, a group of crows is a murder, and a group of INTJs is an argument.

There is one guy that actively researches the topic http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNSlbnjqhV8 (I've linked to a short message he has on the subject, but he has a hour + 1/2 long video on youtube with his experiments data and results)

I don't need a test to know I'm an asshole.

I thought the same thing when I saw this.

It's rather interesting though if I might add, to see how those insensitivities carry over to a logical environment like a weighted survey. The test is really simple, it's four weighted boolean elements, and a result.

That seems to engage people.

Here are some statistics for each trait as of 16:00 PST:

I 71.77% - E 28.23% (General population: I 50.90% - E 49.40%)

N 90.73% - S 9.27% (General population: N 26.90% - S 73.40%)

T 77.16% - F 22.84% (General population: T 40.40% - F 59.90%)

P 49.57% - J 50.43% (General population: P 46.00% - J 54.30%)

And the personality types reported here in comparison to the general population (from the MBTI Manual, 3rd edition, published in 1998):

ISTJ General 11.60% - HN: 2.37%

ISFJ General 13.80% - HN: 0.97%

ISTP General 5.40% - HN: 2.05%

ISFP General 8.80% - HN: 0.86%

ESTP General 4.30% - HN: 0.97%

ESFP General 8.50% - HN: 0.65%

ESTJ General 8.70% - HN: 0.65%

ESFJ General 12.30% - HN: 0.75%

ENTJ General 1.80% - HN: 7.44%

ENTP General 3.20% - HN: 9.91%

ENFJ General 2.50% - HN: 1.94%

ENFP General 8.10% - HN: 5.93%

INTJ General 2.10% - HN: 31.36%

INTP General 3.30% - HN: 22.41%

INFJ General 1.50% - HN: 4.96%

INFP General 4.40% - HN: 6.79%

Edit: Updated statistics at 16:00 PST

Everyone saying "I don't need to take a test to know what kind of person I am" is missing the point of MBTI. It's not a test you take to judge yourself, but one that helps you understand other people.

The sixteen types aren't buckets that people fall neatly into. What they represent are sixteen hypothetical extreme individuals. The model ENTJ would be exactly as described on personality type pages--demanding, unfeeling, unafraid to tell others what dumbshits they are. But no one is a complete ENTJ. The helpfulness of MBTI is that when someone does things that a complete ENTJ might do, it helps to know what their motivation might be, and why they're driven to be that way. When the same person acts like an ENFP, same thing.

Those lamenting the fact that "asshole" isn't one of the available types might like to try instead the Lipson-Shiu Corporate Type test: http://www.andrewlipson.com/lstest.html

"The Lipson-Shiu test attempts to remedy this and other oversights by classifying along four alternative axes: Intelligent-Stupid; Lawful-Chaotic; Important-Unimportant; Good-Evil."

That's what INTJ is.

My personality type is the "I don't believe in personality types" type.

You're in luck, most personality tests have a bin for that.

It's on the floor under the desk...

thats so intj

What does believing and not believing in pesonality types mean exactly?

I mean, as a generalization, as a very introverted person I sure as hell won't get along too well with a very extroverted person unless I really have to. Of course exceptions exist.

Perhaps it means believing each person is complete, unique, and un-classifiable? The We-Are-All-Special-Snowflakes belief.

So you're an asshole? Clearly I'm joking, but people have tendencies and knowing the general buckets of tendency-groups makes it easier to interact with a wider variety of people (and not just introverted engineers).

Is there any actual research evidence for that?

I think the my result will change depending on the mood I am in when taking the test. Describing yourself accurately, not just truthfully, (even in the constraint of the test) is very hard to do.

Uhh, I really hate INTJ personalities, most are so uptight centered on being judgmental. The "worker bee" personality that I see at IT/software places.

INFP ftw, feeling up and perceiving people over thinking and judging people!

Your feelings make you weak.

All joking aside, definitionally feelers are going to place higher weight on their personal feelings, which makes discussing technical subjects difficult, because they're less willing to evaluate different things on their merits alone.

As an INTP, I hear ya, INFP! But those $@!%#& hyperliteral nit-picky TLDR-craving conclusion-jumping downvote-happy INTJs have a clear plurality here.

We're going to need a ?N?P coalition — INFP, INTP, ENFP, ENTP — to retain a little space for some poetic truth and beauty on HN.

There are barely enough ?S?? here to be worth courting. They're probably out dancing and drinking themselves to death during prime HN submission/comment hours, anyway. But just in case any S are reading this, all I have to say to you is: herd immunity and antibiotic resistance are real things! Use some protection! (Ah, damn, that was a little J of me. Sometimes I put on a J or E mask, but it's just for laughs, honest.)

Hahaha I hate them too (INTP here), unfortunately lots of people I interact with are INTJ, which is why I like to be alone, I think, well maybe that's not the only reason.

They are perfectly described by Miguel de Icaza in this article: http://tirania.org/blog/archive/2011/Feb-17.html

I'm feeling pretty judged by this comment.

Haha, touche.

On the one hand, Myers-Brigg is "pseudoscience". On the other, most HN-readers are INTP or INTJ, as expected.

This is a really difficult poll for me, and honestly it changed once I started learning to code (3 or 4 months ago).

I used to read comments and articles of people that liked quiet space and time to think, or of people who hated open office spaces, and think, "They probably just don't like being around people," or even "They probably just don't like people." I thought that the idea of being "wired in" was just as ridiculous as someone calling themselves a "rockstar," or "killing it," and was something that most people pretend to do because it seems cool in the movies but nobody really does.

Then I started to program. Nothing earth-shattering and no big data, just simple applications with a little bit of logic behind them, and everything changed.

The little chat and text notifications would kill my concentration and make me lose large chunks of time and thought. A good pair of headphones wasn't just for music, but for blocking out the rest of the world (even soft, classical music was too distracting to my thought process). There was some really cool stuff happening, and I had created it.

And sometimes, to be frank, the code is more interesting than the social situation I tend to be in. It's not that I don't like people, but even though I consider myself an extrovert (or I used to be an extravert?) I would rather be in a quiet room coding.

My parents say they saw at an early age how intense I was when I played video games (and how agressive I became), and forever banned them at my house and in my life. I feel like that was a major determining force in my personality and who I am today.

Now it feels like there are two people fighting inside of me. I can still go to a party and really enjoy myself, I'm still late all the time, and I still am on the more extraverted side of a lot of the answers and laugh it up and have a very wide circle of friends and barely-acquaintences I love to keep in touch with, but sometimes (and a growing amount of the time) I just want to be left alone so I can figure things out. And I don't crave to be around people like I used to.

It's not hard, when taking a test like this, to see which personality type the answers are lending themselves to, and most of the time when taking them I am thinking to myself, "It depends." I really don't know anymore. And interestingly enough, I feel like my personality is more a result of the things I do than who I am.

For the record: I scored Extravert(44%) iNtuitive(62%) Feeling(62%) Perceiving(67)%

I find it interesting that you feel a struggle yet your scores show a very solid personality. I have the same struggle.

I have always been right in the middle. Used to be a class clown and popular but also had extended bouts of depression where I didn't want to interact.

Nowadays, when working, I want to shut everything out and just code. But I used to be the opposite. Was in service and loved talking to people. Even if I'm not very good at it.

When I was in service, I would usually only hang out with a core group and only occasionally. Now that I'm coding, I want to experience everything in my free time. Meet people and be uncomfortable.

Although I did answer "it depends" to probably 75% of the questions, I think my results reflect somewhat accurately. The only thing that is solid is intuitive. The rest are right on the fence.

Extravert(22%) iNtuitive(62%) Feeling(12%) Perceiving(22)%

I've taken 4 or 5 versions of this test many times over the last 14 years, and have always gotten the same result. Even when I went back and answered differently for questions I was on the fence for. The description was always very accurate too, but I don't like the Idea that there are only 16 models of people.

I don't like the Idea that there are only 16 models of people.

Are you also upset that there are only 2 genders for people? I mean, who is Biology to pigeon-hole us like that?

Joking aside, it's just a loose classification.

P.S. If you spend some time among people, it becomes clear there really aren't a million different "types" of people.

I give it an hour before you're flooded with comments about "two genders".

Off-topic: My personality type is such that I click upvote randomly on HN polls. </joke> This has been the obligatory reminder that HN poll results are meaningless. All ESFP's are just asleep at this time of day.

On-topic: No surprise INTJ is fairly well represented. Logical introverts are a stereotype of our industry.

I love how INTJ is described as "rare" but is by far the highest one here.

We still are rare, but we're the norm here ;)

HN is a rare breed.

Obligatory references on the subject of the unvalidated Myers-Briggs Type Indicator®:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-leadership/myers-b...

"Now, 50 years after the first time anyone paid money for the test, the Myers-Briggs legacy is reaching the end of the family line. The youngest heirs don’t want it. And it’s not clear whether organizations should, either.

. . . .

"Yet despite its widespread use and vast financial success, and although it was derived from the work of Carl Jung, one of the most famous psychologists of the 20th century, the test is highly questioned by the scientific community."

http://www.skepdic.com/myersb.html

http://www.psychometric-success.com/personality-tests/person...

"Overall, the review committee concluded that the MBTI has not demonstrated adequate validity although its popularity and use has been steadily increasing. The National Academy of Sciences review committee concluded that: 'at this time, there is not sufficient, well-designed research to justify the use of the MBTI in career counseling programs,' the very thing that it is most often used for."

http://www.indiana.edu/~jobtalk/HRMWebsite/hrm/articles/deve...

http://www.amazon.com/Cult-Personality-Testing-Annie-Murphy/...

Please, ladies and gentlemen who participate on Hacker News, do yourselves the favor to read some psychological research literature that was written after you were born, so that you find out that the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® was never widely accepted by psychologists and that it now languishes on the ash heap of history. For a long time now, factor-analytic models of human personality have been the fruitful research paradigm, and currently the Big Five model

http://www.tc.umn.edu/~cdeyoung/Pubs/DeYoung_Intelligence-Pe...

enjoys a fair amount of research support across multiple countries with some good confirmation by multiple researchers. The Big Five theory still needs work, but it is much more productive of understanding human personality than the Myers-Briggs model ever was.

Don't forget to up vote the poll to get more data.

Note that the HN poll here suffers BIG-TIME from all the usual problems of voluntary response polls, just like the Literary Digest poll that failed in predicting the result of the 1936 United States presidential election despite a high response rate.

Lots of critical responses here.

What is happening is that you can think of a personality profile as a vector in very high-dimensional space. MBTI presents a basis in a 4-dimensional subspace of that. How well it works for a particular person depends on how her personality aligns with that basis.

A lot people will test near the middle on the MBTI characteristics, and say that the test does not work for them. If most of the population is near the middle, statistical studies won't show much validation for MBTI either.

Now, none of that means that the test has little value -- it actually has a lot of value, but only for people who test at relatively high scores. For example, I generally test as either ENTP or INTP -- and since I'm near the middle of E/I scale, it does not tell much either way. my N, T, and P, however, are quite extreme (I've done quite a few of these, and not once have I had a case when my N or T score was not at the end of the range, P nearly there too) -- so the descriptions and advice for these types that I've seen have been quite relevant and helpful.

Exactly... there are hundreds of systems to evaluate people. All of them are abstractions which are unable to capture the full depth of reality, and so will work well under some conditions and bad under others. It's a matter of design choices and tradeoffs. Choose the system that better fits your needs and be aware of its limitations.

That said, I like MBTI's (or Keirsey's) simplicity. It gives you a lot of data for such a simple system, and is easy to apply. You have to be aware of its limitations, of course. But I've been playing with it for almost 10 years (in my personal life, not so much for work) and it rarely fails me.

I think it's the same principle as the Fibonacci scale for planning poker... you will always have some error in your system, don't fool yourself. So the ROI of a simple system might pay off...

PS: I agree, MBTI seems VERY accurate for people that are not in the middle of the scales, and not-so-accurate otherwise.

The classification would be more meaningful, I think, if there was a good way to characterize certainty/degree.

In my case, I and T are both generally very strong, while N has been weaker.

The most interesting part is the J/P has gradually shifted. I used to test as a very strong J, but that has been changing and today I finally flipped and tested P.

If you'd prefer a somewhat better regarded personality measure, there's Big 5.

e.g.

http://www.outofservice.com/bigfive/

(Not sure if this is a good example but... Google)

Which isn't popular with the average Joe, because in contrast to MB, where all the types have somewhat positive names (Architect, Healer, Protector, Mastermind, Champion, Inventor, ...), the big 5 measures personality traits that can be regarded as negative (and which probably are in the context of social interaction). No one likes to hear from a test that they're a disagreeable, neurotic, close-minded person.

http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4221

You're exactly right, although if I recall correctly, no-one likes "gatekeepers" ;-)

There is a better way to visualize it.

Do click on the link: http://hnlike.com/hncharts/chart/?id=7033047

Unfortunately, this chart is arranged badly. But you can glean the information by comparing columns.

First huge difference: N > S (biggest of all!) Next difference: T > F (more pronounced amongst Ns) Next difference: I > E (more pronounced amongst NTs)

Note that there is almost no difference along the J/P axis.

I get the I/E distinction, I understand the F/T dimension, but I've never read a good explanation of N/S and J/P. Anyone care to explain?

I apologize in advance for the hand waving vagueness, but here's how I think of it.

N=abstract thinker, likes ideas and concepts and big picture S=concrete thinker, likes real things and details

J=likes rules and systems and binary partitions P=thinks in terms of guidelines and heuristics and rules of thumb and grey areas.

Most programmers are Ns, but I have met quite a few DBAs who are Ss. I'm a P (could you tell) although close to the middle. I like to make the joke that Ps are always 5 minutes late, but don't think of that as being late ;)

Hope this helps.

> I like to make the joke that Ps are always 5 minutes late, but don't think of that as being late ;)

As someone who got "INTP," I would say that is probably accurate.

N's tend to be big-picture, conceptual thinkers, whereas S's are detail-oriented and concrete.

J's are to-do list sorts of people, they enjoy finishing tasks, tend to "get a lot of stuff done", but can be stressed if there isn't a plan. P's prefer starting projects to finishing them, they tend to work off-the-cuff, probably appear to get less done, but are more capable of dealing with changing circumstances and priorities.

N/S: Sensing is paying attention to facts, literally things you can hear, see, feel. Intuition is prediction, what do the facts mean?

J/P: Judgement is about planning, making concrete decisions. Perception is leaving options open, doing things on the fly.

As a programmer / startup founder, I feel like I oscillate between INTJ and ENTJ.

Which one is "caustic bastard?"

I was wondering something similar, but for 'asshole.'

And my first instinct was "misanthrope" which I guess is just an asshole with motivation.

The "rarest" personality type (ENTP)[http://www.16personalities.com/intj-personality] has the most up votes. I don't know why I saw that coming but I did. A very interesting community here.

It's been different every time I've taken the test.

Why is that important exactly? To know in which pigeon hole I belong? Don't get me wrong. It's vital to be aware of one's traits, strengths and weaknesses but I'm not a D&D character. Defining people by four-letter groups seems just weird to me.

Interesting, the website links states that INTJ's are less than 2% of general population, yet they consist of about 30$ of responses to this poll, confirming HN is not a standard subset of the general populace.

I'm a QWBX - that's the personality type for people who think pseudoscientific bullshit like the MBTI doesn't belong in the boardrooms, factory floors and minds of the human race.

... and minds of the human race.

Wow, you really have zero tolerance for things you don't like, don't you.

Only for things with zero value. Why, what worthless things would you inflict on people in the name of tolerance?

Who are "hackers" here? Software engineers?

Curious about the type distribution of IT entrepreneurs (founders, co-founders, CEO's, and CTO's).

Another thought: Is the distribution the consequence of natural selection/evolution? Does it mean that hackers are losers in the survival game?

I could have sworn INTJ is supposedly the rarest of types, found in only about 1% of people, and yet it has by far the most votes here.

If these things are to be believed though, INTJ is more likely to be found among engineers/scientists. There are some who say INTJ is the most "independent" type - one could draw a correlation between the personality type and that of an entrepreneur striking out on their own and/or freelancers. It's then easy to make the argument that you'd have more INTJ's interested in something like HN.

Even thought I generally think these sort of tests are rubbish it turns out I'm, quite accurately, an ISFP.

This kind of test annoys me to no end, when they rephrase the same questions over and over and over again. I am sure there is some point to it, and the profile I hit very close to home.

I don't really care for it though, especially since the site is obviously just trying to make people buy the full-depth profile.

Fun, I guess.

So far we're proving the %'s wrong with all of these INTJ's (2% worldwide or something)!

While I don't agree with the science behind these test, I would assume that INTJ's would have similar interest and likely gather at a place such as Hacker News.

We are just proving that a lot of INTJ's visit hacker news.

Oh great, I'm a ENTJ just like Steve Jobs & Jim Carrey.

So, Steve and Jim both were similar in personality?

"the INTJ may become obsessed with mindless repetitive, Sensate activities" http://www.personalitypage.com/INTJ.html

I don't put too much belief in the tests, but when all your close friends are INTJ and you're the only ENFP.. the test helps you recognize why you're a little different from the rest of them.

ENTP all day, all night.

What are the distributions on the answers? I always get xxxP where the first three are always around neutral and I'm P off the charts, whatever the hell that means.

I've taken this test 4 times or so over the past 5 years, each time with a different result. Not quite science in my book, but definitely something to reflect upon.

I get the same on all test I have done over the years

are all hackers INTJ..?

Not at all. I'd wager a guess that when you're a startup founder, it greatly helps to be an E.

I consistently rate as an I, yet most people I meet would consider me an extrovert/E. Part of this is because when I'm meeting with people, I can be E, but it's not necessarily my default behavior (or what I'm most comfortable with, to be honest).

If it's not what you're most comfortable with, that means you're not actually an extravert. An extravert is someone who is energized by dealing with the external world, and an introvert is energized by dealing with their internal world. There are introverts who are very outgoing and good with people. It just tends to take a lot out of them.

I know - I was replying in the context of the parent's comment:

"I'd wager a guess that when you're a startup founder, it greatly helps to be an E."

Not sure if it necessarily helps - it's going to depend on what your other skills are and who, if anyone, else is on your team. I'm an I but get mistaken for an E.

Only the Randite faction.

Some. INTP is also highly represented, what with the "MUST UNDERSTAND SYSTEM" drive. I think I heard somewhere that pg's an INTP, but that could be wrong.

I think most hackers are NT - abstraction and thinking. The E/I and J/P varies.

Not sure if this happens to others but in my case some times I'm ENTP and others INTP. I guess I'm somehow in the middle and it might depend on the day.

I always get either ISTP or INTP, depending on the N/S questions.

I like to understand the risky situations I find myself in.

Interesting but not surprisingly INTJ has most votes being one of the rarest of the personality types.

32% of HN is part of the rarest personality type? I cannot help but laugh.

I got my mother to do it and entered her result, does that count?

Not surprised at the number of INTs. Fair number of ENT as well.

C'mon, HN is better than this psuedo-science. If it were a poll asking for sun and rising signs it'd get flamed and flagged to death.

People need better critical thinking skills.

melancholic, with a soupçon of wry derision.

The "I"s have it

So many INTJ I guess it makes sense given the kind of website we use :D

typical INTJ most of the time :(

INFJ

INTP

ENFJ

INFJ

ICIE

I consider myself dynamically-typed.

Comedy answer: single and unloved.

EDIT:

Last time I took this, ENTJ. Now, ENFP. I'm apparently going soft.

INTJ

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