Poll HN: Myers-Briggs Personality Types | Hacker News Reader

Poll HN: Myers-Briggs Personality Types

3 pointsjwb1196 comments

Recently came across this entry http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=204240 from over a year ago and I thought it would be interesting to rerun the poll, especially in light of the growth HN has experienced since then..

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My caution would be to first of all review the research on how poorly validated Myers-Briggs personality types are.

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.skepdic.com/myersb.html

"Employers may hire, fire, or assign personnel by personality type, despite the fact that the MBTI® is not even reliable at identifying one’s type. Several studies have shown that when retested, even after intervals as short as five weeks, as many as 50 percent will be classified into a different type."

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

"There is a large body of research that suggests that the claims made about the MBTI cannot be supported. In other words, although the MBTI appears to measure something, many psychologists are not convinced that any significant conclusions can be based on the test."

I don't believe there is any credible evidence (i.e., studies not done by organizational consultants pimping their tests) that Myers-Briggs tests predict much of anything. I don't think they predict whether a person will be good at a particular job any more than asking that persion "will you be good at this job" does.

Sometimes people need a vocabulary to talk about people with. I think that's why some people get into the Zodiac stuff, it just gives you a way to talk about personality traits. You could also use Tolkienian races -- "Joe is a imperious, perfectionist Elf when it comes to writing code" or etc. Regardless of what group of names you pick, usually the people who are very successful do very well in one area, say introversion / introspection or something, and can force themselves to do decently in the "opposite" area. Kind of like how some of the important characters in Tolkien were half-breeds.

The appendix of "The Organization Man" by William Whyte contains a guide to "cheating" on Myers-Briggs type tests, to get a score appealing to a large organization. I highly recommend reading the whole book but especially the cheating appendix before interviewing at a corporate place.

ILIE (Grand Vizier) according to the Lipson-Shiu Corporate Type Test.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=443182

Yes, it's a spoof, but it's a damn sight more entertaining than MBTI, and some say it's more accurate. I used it as a test of sense of humor a while ago when hiring and was surprised at the result it gave. I didn't belive it, I hired anyway, and three years later it's proved to be a remarkably accurate prediction, which has surprised me even more, and disappointed me a lot.

The plural of "anecdote" isn't "data", but it's made me think.

Oh, and INTJ.

clickable links (pulled from previous poll for consistency):

tests:

http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp

http://apps.facebook.com/my-type/

profiles:

http://www.personalitypage.com/portraits.html

http://typelogic.com/

previous HN results:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=204240

I tend to float in the ENXP category with a leaning towards ENTP.

I bet you'll see a lot of INTJ (that's me!) and INTPs here.

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