122 Comments

God damn you got a lot of old geezers like me reading your stuff LOL

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Well, old geezers are the only ones think reading is worthwhile.

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Old geezers are the ones that understand what's at stake.

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Going for 120 with all my faculties, so consider myself middle-aged. Watch those ageist remarks! LOL!

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I'm racing you!

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Super. It gets lonely at the top!

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I'm shocked how substack has such an old audience... Also very disappointing in some ways.

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The youth don't read much. It's mostly watching short videos for them.

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Fox News shows the way to riches is conning old people out of money.

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Wow. Most of us are past middle age. SMH.

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Younger people don't read.

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Younger people have work, career, family etc.

Us oldies are either retired or have grown up kids and stable jobs therefore more spare time.

I couldn't have been here 10 years ago, life was too busy.

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I am 69 and still practicing law. I am very busy (18 cases on my Monday docket) but I still read A LOT. If I didn’t I would not be able to stay ahead of the state and federal shenanigans to protect myself, my family, and my law firm.

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Best invention every is the audio book (Audible)... I listen every single spare moment .. when I am in the car driving ... before I go to sleep --- if I wake up in the night I put on a book and it clears my thoughts and back to sleep I go...

I average one or two books per week - and they ain't authored by Dannielle Steele...

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Younger people have tik-tok...

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No

Younger people don’t read.

I read no matter what was going on in life.

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You're very generous.

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Especially not deep thoughts.

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Very possibly because developing an abiding interest in verifying facts takes an extended period of having life mercilessly beat us up. We probably didn't pay close enough attention to facts when we were younger, passionately leaping to unwarranted conclusions and wasting a lot of energy and time. The emotional intensity fades with age, leaving a bit more attention span available for obtaining a balanced viewpoint.

As we've gotten older, we can look back on how many times we were proven wrong because we hadn't done our due diligence. We no longer have the time and energy to spare on ill-informed conclusions.

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You mean when you voted for Bush in 2004?? And then you voted for Republicans that voted Lizard Cheney into House Leadership in 2021!?! Oops! ;)

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I'd have expected a larger percentage of Ns. Ns are abstract theorists; we love acquiring knowledge, wisdom and competencies. INFs are also idea-oriented, even if their focus is on helping others. NT's, in their quest for knowledge and, often, willingness to share knowledge, often look like we are doing it to help others, but that is not our focus and prime need.

Those who scoff at this system would do well to take another look at the Type they think they are. More than half misidentify themselves. If your jaw doesn't drop upon reading a description of your type, try another type description. Say "bingo!" when you are stunned at realizing the description is 85-90% "you," and when you find it knows stuff about you that you did not know or understand about yourself.

You will find it liberating to find your true, underlying, genetic Type. This is not superficial, learned behavior, as Enneagrams and so many other systems are. The INs among you will begin to understand why, generally, you grew up wondering, "What the hell us going on with the rest of the world, and why don't I understand them and why don't they understand me?" We INs could easily be half of the readers here, yet comprise only about 4% of the overall population. That explains a whole lot of what we are dealing with in both our macro and micro worlds. And, as with Atlas, it's incumbent on us few to save the rest of the world from themselves.

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I'm an ADHD who gets a headache looking at crap like that. :)

Oh yeah, I'm old and crabby.

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It's very interesting that there are so many INFJ's in this sample. In the general population, it's a very rare personality type--only about 1.5%, I think. Wonder what it is about us INFJ's that allows to see the emperor is naked?

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So please tell us NE what Myers-Briggs Briggs type are you and what age are you? Don’t worry I won’t tell anyone 😉

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Likely IN of some sort.

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I know we have to choose, but i vacillate between istj and intj; there is both in me. chose the first.

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Didn’t you take the survey? You don’t just decide which one describes you...

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Very different Temperaments. Find your Temperament by reading a description, then zero in on specific Type.

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I did Doug. Reply above.

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I have in my possession a hand written letter from Kiersey, the author of "Please Understand Me". He and I had correspondence for awhile. I should really frame it, but it is three pages and difficult to mount. We debated over whether Mark Twain was an NT or not. He won.

As an INTJ I was astonished at how many people took the covid shot without even a cursory examination of the science surrounding it. I waited for information to unfold and by August 2021 it was clear to me that something nefarious was happening. I've lost almost all my faith the medical system. Most people are either ignorant, brainwashed, or stupid. In my circle I have noted 84 adverse events and 23 deaths. And I'm sure I've overlooked some. My favorite truth tellers are Dr. Sucharit Bhakdi, Dr. Stephanie Seneff, Dr. Ryan Cole, and Kevin Mckernan. I would add Dr. Luc Montagnier, but he is deceased.

I think the changing temperament sorter scores over time indicates a change in the understanding of the questions, and not a change in a person's personality. Some of the wording on the questions is not so great and as a result you may interpret the question differently the next time you encounter it. A second factor is that I think many people don't understand themselves all that well. And maybe they desire to be someone they are not. For example, I have noticed that many SJ types think they are NFs, when in actuality they are an hardcore SJ. They often want to be, or be seen as, more artistic or musical than they really are.

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Wow, am I jealous! Keirsey saved my life in so many ways. I met him twice; had snacks together once after a talk he gave. I introduced my S.O. as an INTP; he later pulled me aside and asked, are you sure she's not INFP? It took me a year, but I finally was able to look through her psychoactive drug addiction (long story) and realized he was right. Total game changer: I applied the idea that, as he put it, "Never accept anyone's self-assessment of their own Type," to "Never accept anyone's self-assessment that they are not an alcoholic." Out of that came four books on behavioral indications of alcohol/other-drug addiction, which also changed my life (and many readers' lives as well).

We INTJs are the least accepting of "common knowledge," but not even I realized how awful so much such "knowledge" was. I went into this totally pro-vaxx but, like you, recognized the fraud in this fake-faxx early on. I knew by March 2020 I wasn't going to take it. But until the middle of last year I thought other "real" vaccines had saved hundreds of millions of lives. No. They likely cost tens of millions and damaged hundreds of millions more.

The changing Temperament scores over time indicate not only a change in the understanding of the questions, but also a change in mood, stress factors and, for the NFs, who they want to please that day. And the J/P questions on the Myers-Briggs Indicator are poor. I consistently score INTP, because I read the J/P questions from an Introverted point of view, and we Js are, as Keirsey posited, closet Js; Ps are closet Js. And yes, some desire to be someone they are not, or they've learned from work that they must be a certain "work mode" style.

Excellent commentary, ratskins.

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Wise words! Actually, I'm jealous of you. I never actually met Keirsey . . . I only had a long distance correspondence. By the way, his handwriting was exceedingly feeble. He must have been very old at the time. But his mind was very sharp.

I'm with you on the entire vax big picture. I was hugely pro-vax and even got multiple flu vaxxes. Once I drove to Canada to get a flu vax since they weren't available locally. At this point I'm evaluating each vaccine with a jaundiced eye. I guess if I get bit by a rabid bat they could talk me into it. But in general they may have seen the last of me.

Understanding the temperament sorter has been key to being able to operate a successful business. I retire shortly after almost 30 years. I don't think I could have formed the relationships needed for success in business without the understanding of human nature outlined by Kiersey. As it is I'm well set providing we survive the Marxist color revolution currently in play.

If you haven't already seen it and are of a technical nature you might want to read the excellent paper by Seneff about how the mRNA platform causes suppression of the alpha-interferon signalling pathway of the immune system and leads to a host of issues. Also, the mechanism of how spike gets past the blood brain barrier via traveling in exosomes up the vagus nerve. Seneff and I have corresponded off and on since last December. She is very gracious and I try to be respectful of that. Here is a link to that paper: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027869152200206X?via%3Dihub

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Wow on that linked article. Thank you. Check out Jeff Childers' C & C article this morning. Add the two together for a taste of something well beyond Edgar Allan Poe's worst alcoholism-fueled nightmare.

I'm with you on how incredibly useful Type and Temperament is in running a business.

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Throughout my long career at a Fortune 100 Company I observed that “IS_ _” and “EN_ _” personality types on the Myers’s Briggs scale were from Venus and Mars. The company I worked for used the MB scale extensively to try and get the workforce to understand each other better and improve productivity. I’m not sure to this day that the objective succeeded.

I am an ISTJ and had a boss who was an ENFP. We couldn’t communicate. There was never an ounce of understanding between us and we never viewed a single problem the same way. Working for him was an exercise in total futility for me. The worst part was one-on-one meetings in his office when I would go to him for advice and counsel(and help) on a difficult problem I was encountering. If I thought the problem was “Red”(metaphorically speaking) he would declare that it was Blue. In other words my perception of reality was completely wrong in his opinion. But he could never explain his perception of reality in a way that made any sense to me. I was relieved when he got promoted and I got a new boss. Some people are wired completely differently. Perhaps it was/is of some value to recognise this fact. But you don’t want them for a boss.

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You were precise opposites. Oddly, Keirsey observed (and I have as well) that the ISTJ/ENFP combo is the most common "opposite attracts" among married couples. I know of a couple that have happily lasted decades.

That said, fully opposite couples are rare. It's nice to have at least one or two of the letters in the alphabet soup in common which, as you imply, allows for better communication.

I can see where this would be a problem in the work place. However, knowing Type "should" help communication. I know well that it doesn't always work that way, but much of the problem can likely be ascribed to the fact all-too-many score inaccurately, which is never corrected by someone trained to spot "true" type. If someone scores wrongly and everyone just accepts the "assigned" type, there can be no understanding.

I've met many who scored very differently than what we later discovered was true type. On came to work for me; I pegged him as an ENFP almost immediately. Long story short, he'd taken the Indicator once before, I gave it to him again, and he took the Keirsey Sorter (same idea as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator). He scored three different ways, none of which were ENFP (or even the same Temperament). I handed him Keirsey's description of each of the Types and his estimate of how much of each was "him" ranged from 20 to 50%. Then I handed him the ENFP description; his jaw was on the ground by the 2nd or 3rd paragraph. He said it was 95% "him," and I responded, "I know."

We discussed why and how he'd tested so differently. After a half hour he'd figured out he responded that he answered as his mother would have for one, his father for another, and a cross between the two for the third. Why? Because NFs are "people pleasers."

People score inaccurately, for a variety of reasons, at least half the time. Good descriptions of the types are essential, which must be agreed to or not. If it's not "you," if your jaw doesn't drop, keep looking. Because finding one's true type is incredibly rewarding.

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I would like to debate the name your test gives to ENTPs, but then I'm playing right into their hands.

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Try "inventor."

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We’ve got too much time on our hands

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I pretty much stopped working in 2009 when I realized we were f789ed... went bucket listing (my board was a bit miffed but I control so live with me picking up email in Uzbekistan or wherever the dart landed on the map)

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The old geezers have a lot more life experience than the young'uns and have seen this movie (or something like it) before!

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Not a fan of Myers Briggs. My MB has changed many times over my lifetime so far.

FWIW, I'm an engineer.

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I don't think the MB results are expected to be immutable over a lifetime. I know people who are on the border between I & E and can go either way, espcially engineers. :-)

But, sure, there are better tests and I've found the MB to be somewhat tautological: It tells you what you tell it dressed up a bit. Jung didn't use an well-defined experimental method, he was a clinician who generalized what he thought he saw in his patients and made assumptions about them that may have reflected adaptations or his own views more than temperaments/personality traits. But I find it interesting and occasionally useful. I like the I/E question that asks if you are energized after a party (E) or drained after a party (I). One could be either, but I've found -- for those strongly & consistently E or I -- that it is right on the money.

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I believe Type is innate. The confusion stems from parental influence, people pleasing NFs who will often score as a loved one would, stress while taking the Indicator (which can cause completely innaccurate scores), chameleon SPs (who can be anything at any time as the need requires), work learning, and poor design of the questions on the J/P dichotomous scale. I originally scored ISTJ, but was going through great stress; I consistently score INTP on Myers-Briggs, but accurately INTJ on Keirsey's Sorter.

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Exactly. People don't know themselves well enough to test and stress and trauma can push people into acting like their opposite. The book "Was that really me" based upon results from thousands of MBTI test takers and written by one of MBTI's former official writers, goes into this at depth. A INFP under too much stress or trauma may act like a bad version of a ESTJ.

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Thank you for the book suggestion! Damn you for sending me down another rabbit hole!

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For anyone interested, Naomi Quenk is the author. Looks good.

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It is better than good. It is my absolutely favorite book on MBTI. It goes a long way to validate the idea of Jungian Cognitive Functions and the function stack. For anyone who is unfamiliar with this idea, it is that each person has a stack, an order of cognitive operations, so everyone has a N, a S, a T, and a F.

Under this theory, a ESTJ would be stacked as Extroverted Thinker (Te), Introverted Sensor (Si), Extroverted Intuitive (Ne), and Introverted Feeler (Fi). The Te function would be the primary function, Si secondary or auxiliary, Ne tertiary, and Fi inferior.

Oddly enough, the ESTJ would share the 4 functions with a INFP, just in reverse order -- Fi, Ne, Si, Te.

Quenk's research suggests that an INFP in the grip of the inferior function will act like a bad version of the ESTJ. We can be in the grip when we are stressed and under pressure. The tertiary function is the rest or recovery function, but also where we can end up in loops.

Complicating this is that we use our extroverted judgment (Je) function for communication, either Fe or Te.

Also complicating this type development. It seems that we develop the primary function naturally and young, so we don't even think about it. Our secondary function does not develop next, but instead our inferior function, especially in teenage years. We suddenly act badly for reasons no one understands in large part because our brains are not yet fully developed and we need integrate our inferior into our primary.

The are a lot of rabbit holes on all this. If you want to look more at Jungian Cognitive Functions, Dario Nardi's old site, which still has the test, but looks like it isn't maintained, has his test http://keys2cognition.com/explore.htm

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In my younger years I found parties draining, but later I found out that had everything to do with my frame of mind, not my core personality.

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I absolutely despise cocktail parties. I'd rather gargle diesel than attend one.

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I’m not a fan either. Tested as INTJ the first time and ENTJ the second, but the questions are becoming increasingly meaningless and I think the test has always been based on false premises. A psychologist friend tells me that the five personality traits test is much more reliable. I’m also an engineeer.

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Agree!

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Because you were mistyped, perhaps many times.

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I don't think so. I'm pretty sure I changed continuously. I think a lot of the E/I has to do with awkward feeling -- the underbelly of people IMO -- and awkward can easily be eliminated through multiple methods.

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Try a "P" type, as in INTP. Ps can have a tough time making up their minds!

What sort of engineer are you?

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Studied systems design, and I work in software. I was very indecisive when younger, so I decided to become a referee when I was in University. Nothing like being forced to make instant decisions in a tense environment...

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Systems design is very often INTP, but try ENTP, too, especially if you feel like an Introvert but have a knack for observing everything around you. Just a thought.

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My assessment this time came out ENTJ-A

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It is quite a compliment that your writing appeals to all 16 personality types. You have a significant number of readers from all 4 of the broad categories. Congratulations on reaching so many!

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Good point- thanks!

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Dear NE, I voted earlier based on a test i about a year ago (ISTJ), but i just did your test now and it turns out I am an INTJ-A. Just letting you know so you can correct your outcome and get your stats right.

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You must not have read a description of the ISTJ; or, you figured, well that's half me so I guess it must be right.

Nope!

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Lets steer away from causing divisions either by age or anything else.. They did that during the "Plandemic". Though it is interesting to note and we are all curious by nature. Hopefully we're all here united to learn interesting facts and the truth about what is really going on in the world.

Finally the Myers Briggs test was spot on and made my husband laugh when he read my results as it was so accurate. In fact he now understands why it is so important to me, to dig out and stand up for the truth .Even against all the odds. Fascinating.

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Agreed, but most are not curious by nature. Ns are far more curious than Ss, overall. Accounting for the fact Ns comprise only 25% of the population, yet what, 75% or more here?!

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I agree too lots are not interested in finding out about themselves, but what I was referring to mainly were the comments about age.

Some comments were funny but pigeon - holing people and making assumptions can be dangerous and used negatively, which is not good.

I just felt we should remain humorous and up- beat, the test seems to prove we have a lot in common here so let’s see what the final results show.

Most of us are just glad to find like minded people in a very gloomy world.

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