[HPFGU-OTChatter] Personality Types

[Jen Faulkner]

On Fri, 30 Mar 2001 catherine at cator-manor.demon.co.uk wrote:

> Can someone please tell me what the difference is between INTP and
> INFP?

INTP and INFP are actually pretty similar, obviously.  The INTP is more
concerned with logic, analysis, and so on, whereas the INFP values
imagination, creativity and fantasy more.  I could crudely put the
distinction as the literary critic (INTP) vs. the writer (INFP), but I
think that's terribly simplistic, not to mention inaccurate (says me,
the INFP literary critic, right?).  Still, that's about what it boils
down to.

Kimberly wrote:

> I think you must be right.  HP fans must have a higher overall
> percentage of us INFPs, because I've run across bunches of us
> lately, and I think it's mostly been in HP land.

Considering that the HP books are fantasy (not to start in on the whole
question of their genre again, though!), I'm not at all surprised to see
so many INFPs... But to see so many vocal ones *g* !

Benjamin wrote:

> It basically says I should never do anything with numbers, so how
> come I'm teaching maths tomorrow?

As fun as these sorts of tests are, don't take them too seriously (I
really don't think they should be given in, say, work-situations).  
They're a little more accurate ('scientific') than astrology, for
example, but they still vastly underestimate the complexity of
personality, let alone things that aren't part of that.  IOW, just
because you score as an INFP doesn't mean you won't/shouldn't be good at
things involving logic or structured systems; it more tries to suggest
that's not your preferred way of looking at the world.

If I had no ability to think logically, analytically, and
systematically, I certainly wouldn't have chosen to go into classics,
and I couldn't have minored in cs as an undergrad.  But, OTOH, whatever
abilities I might have in logic, it's not the way I really relate to
things; I usually use it as a secondary means of backing up what I've
already intuited, felt, and perceived.

And I hate strategy games, puzzles, etc., passionately.  (Of course,
CS205, which was an entire class in formal logic, was one of my favorite
undergrad courses.  Go figure.  I adored doing proofs and so on.)

> Anyway, problems arise with phoning/calling people if you have a
> whole group of IXXX together

Oh, do they ever!!  One time, in college, a friend and I wanted to order
food...  well, after we spent hours debating what we should order, where
from (and I'm not exaggerating about the time there!  Two indecisive
people together are much, much worse than one), it came time to Make The
Call.  Neither one of us wanted to...  we cooked pasta instead.

--jen, just blathering now... :)

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