Writer's Block: Taking It Personally

[rocknload]

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Short answer: I think those tests are bullshit, and me saying hey, I'm an ENTP! is about as useful as saying hey, I'm a Leo/Virgo cusp! In fact, in my case the astrological sign is closer to describing my personality, but it's not like it's saying a lot anyway. The profiles are always filled with phrases like: "They tend to have a perverse sense of humor as well, and enjoy playing devil's advocate." Or: "Sometimes they exaggerate problems and overreact to stumbling blocks, but generally they are positive and their natural pride and stubborn streak keeps them from giving up." Those sound awfully specific, don't they? But honestly, how many people wouldn't identify with those statements?

Pop psychology usually pisses me off, though.

Comments

[immelmanturn.livejournal.com]

JESUS CHRIST IT'S A VIRGIN LION GET IN THE CAR.

Wait, isn't Bryce older than you?

[rocknload.livejournal.com]

Fuck no. I object. WITH SCIENCE AND REASON.

[immelmanturn.livejournal.com]

Your icon reminds me of Mt. Rushmore.

[immelmanturn.livejournal.com]

SCIENCE HAS NO PLACE HERE.

[unicorn]

I object with weapons. I think I'm historically on the winning side, here.

[immelmanturn.livejournal.com]

There's historical precedent for lions versus centaurs?

[rocknload.livejournal.com]

He's only twenty! I'm the oldest by far, and a leader among us let me tell you. He looks older than he is and I think I might look younger, though, so people get confused a lot, they think he's older or that we're twins.

[unicorn]

There's a historical precedent for reason versus people with sharp pointy objects.

[rocknload.livejournal.com]

Maybe.

But then you will be devoured, so it WILL NOT EVEN MATTER.

[idgiebay]

Hah! Strangely enough, you're not the first person to have told me that.

...Or are you? Because you might be the person I'm thinking of.

[rocknload.livejournal.com]

I think answering the act of answer the questions might be valuable in and of itself, because it does make you sort of think about the kind of person you are and stuff. But the actual results? Fun, but eh. Unless they're telling me that I'm MY FAVORITE CHARACTER or that I'm going to grow up to be an evil genius or something, the wordy explanations are irrelevant.

[immelmanturn.livejournal.com]

You're the sinister mastermind, dispatching your artistic martial arts ninja troop of two. And yeah, I thought you were about the same age. NOW I KNOW.

[immelmanturn.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, yes.

Unless you're Henry Jones Sr.

[idgiebay]

That's true. Any online test can do that, though, and knowing the results ahead of time might alter your honesty. Soemtimes you think more about who you'd like to be rather than who you really are.

[immelmanturn.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure I've never told you that before.

But I'd sponsor a monument like that.

[rocknload.livejournal.com]

You strike me as a person who's unusually self-aware to the point where an online test on the Internet is probably going to have no affect on your perception of your personality whatsoever. This might affect why you routinely get the same results no matter how the writer is slanting the test and stuff!

Since I can never decide if I'm an introvert or an extrovert or a rational logical person or an impulsive intuitive one—probably because I am none of these things—the test just fails for me. My results depend on how the author is defining those words and even then I'm like, barely over whatever line they've drawn, which makes me doubt the effectiveness of the whole exercise.

[rocknload.livejournal.com]

That's another thing about those tests!

I mean, if I'm answering those questions, I'm going to be answering how I think I am at that particular moment, and my results are going to reflect my answers, so of course I'm going to go, "Aha! It must be accurate, it sounds just like me!"

[rocknload.livejournal.com]

People who agree with me will write the history books! They'll paint your side as ignorant and brutish and THUS IN DEATH I WILL BE VICTORIOUS.

[unicorn]

I think you're an ixtroverted rational intuitive. And it occurs to me that most clear-cut categories like that only really work if it IS, in fact, clear-cut! People aren't in general.

[rocknload.livejournal.com]

It's more confusing if you actually meet us both, because we actually follow all those fictional twin cliches for the most part. Exact same height, virtually identical interests, similar hairstyles and facial features and we've almost always had the same jobs and it goes on. One of our coworkers at GameStop said that we were like a pair of socks.

[rocknload.livejournal.com]

They aren't! I mean, you can approximate, but if you're doing that enough then it's sort of like what's the point? Plus, the Myers-Briggs in particular sets things as opposites of each other, and we kind of accept that this makes sense but if you think about it, deciding that say FEELING and THINKING are mutually exclusive polarities is sort of arbitrary.

[unicorn]

I don't think that happens very often until the dead society is so completely stomped to death with its grave paved over in concrete that the victorious one can feel some magnanimous guilt hundreds of years later.

[unicorn]

YOU CANNOT DO BOTH AT ONCE

Your head explodes.

Though I do agree that there's a certain amount of truth to that? I mean, in general people DO either do things spontaneously or process them out logically, and don't either do both or switch them up ALL that often. I'm emotionally disconnected from my surroundings often enough that I make decisions based in feeling by quantitatively and qualitatively assessing how my reactions will probably affect myself and the people around me and weighing pros and cons. That's either your normal modus operandi or it isn't, right?

[rocknload.livejournal.com]

What you just described actually happens pretty often, it seems to me.

[unicorn]

UNTIL my conditions are met, I said!

So your victory will be based in vague DEBTS TO THE PAAAST that annoy people because they don't really like feeling guilty even if it's a societal obligation, and will disappear the next time I have a concrete enemy?

I can live with that.