Education Assignment 1 and 2

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PERSONALITY HACKER

Harness the power of your personality type to transform your work, relationships and life

Joel Mark Witt and Antonia Dodge

Witt, J. M., & Dodge, A. (2018). Personality hacker : Harness the power of your personality type to transform your work, relationships, and life. Ulysses Press. Created from franklin-ebooks on 2024-01-08 04:14:24.

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Text copyright © 2018 Joel Mark Witt and Antonia Dodge. Design and concept copyright © 2018 Ulysses Press and its licensors. All rights reserved. Any unauthorized duplication in whole or in part or dissemination of this edition by any means (including but not limited to photocopying, electronic devices, digital versions, and the internet) will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Published in the United States by: Ulysses Press P.O. Box 3440 Berkeley, CA 94703 www.ulyssespress.com

ISBN: 978-1-61243-779-8

Acquisitions: Bridget Thoreson Managing editor: Claire Chun Editor: Shayna Keyles Proofreader: Bill Cassel Front cover design: Justin Shirley Interior design and production: Jake Flaherty Artwork: cover © Bygermina/shutterstock.com; page 308 © Joel Mark Witt and Antonia Dodge

Distributed by Publishers Group West

NOTE TO READERS: This book is independently authored and published and no sponsorship or endorsement of this book by, and no affiliation with, any trademarked brands or other products mentioned within is claimed or suggested. All trademarks that appear in this book belong to their respective owners and are used here for informational purposes only. The authors and publisher encourage readers to patronize the quality brands mentioned in this book.

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Contents PREFACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Our Generation’s Identity Crisis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

How We Got into This Mess . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

Why We Need to Know Ourselves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

What You’ll Gain from This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

How This Book Is Organized . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

Getting the Most from This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

SECTION ONE: SYSTEM AND THEORY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

CHAPTER 1

System of Personality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Our Favorite Personality Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15

CHAPTER 2

Myers-Briggs Dichotomies and Cognitive Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Myers-Briggs Dichotomies Explained . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18

Introversion vs Extraversion: Inner World vs. Outer World Reality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18

Sensing vs. iNtuition: How We Perceive Reality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20

Thinking vs. Feeling: How We Evaluate Information and Make Decisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22

Judging vs. Perceiving: Do You Want Freedom or Organization? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23

Dichotomies: In Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25

CHAPTER 3

The Cognitive Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 The Four Cognitive Functions You Use. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31

Pairing Cognitive Functions with Myers-Briggs Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33

Dominant and Auxiliary Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35

Tertiary and Inferior Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35

CHAPTER 4

The Car Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Determining Cognitive Function from Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38

Driver (Dominant) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40

Copilot (Auxiliary) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40

10-Year-Old (Tertiary) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42

3-Year-Old (Inferior) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44

CHAPTER 5

Cognitive Functions in Detail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Perceiving Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46

Judging Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50

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The Good News and Bad News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53

SECTION TWO: THE SIXTEEN TYPES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

CHAPTER 6

ENTP Personality Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 The ENTP Driver Is Exploration (Ne). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58

The ENTP Copilot Is Accuracy (Ti) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .62

The ENTP 10-Year-Old Is Harmony (Fe) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .66

The ENTP 3-Year-Old Is Memory (Si) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .68

CHAPTER 7

ENFP Personality Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 The ENFP Driver Is Exploration (Ne) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .71

The ENFP Copilot Is Authenticity (Fi) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .76

The ENFP 10-Year-Old Is Effectiveness (Te) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .81

The ENFP 3-Year-Old Is Memory (Si) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .83

CHAPTER 8

ESTP Personality Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 The ESTP Driver Is Sensation (Se) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .86

The ESTP Copilot Is Accuracy (Ti) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .90

The ESTP 10-Year-Old Is Harmony (Fe) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .94

The ESTP 3-Year-Old Is Perspectives (Ni) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .96

CHAPTER 9

ESFP Personality Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 The ESFP Driver Is Sensation (Se) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .99

The ESFP Copilot Is Authenticity (Fi) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .103

The ESFP 10-Year-Old Is Effectiveness (Te) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .108

The ESFP 3-Year-Old Is Perspectives (Ni) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .110

CHAPTER 10

INTJ Personality Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 The INTJ Driver Is Perspectives (Ni) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .114

The INTJ Copilot Is Effectiveness (Te) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .118

The INTJ 10-Year-Old Is Authenticity (Fi) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .122

The INTJ 3-Year-Old Is Sensation (Se) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .124

CHAPTER 11

INFJ Personality Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 The INFJ Driver Is Perspectives (Ni) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .128

The INFJ Copilot Is Harmony (Fe) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .131

The INFJ 10-Year-Old Is Accuracy (Ti) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .136

The INFJ 3-Year-Old Is Sensation (Se) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .139

CHAPTER 12

ISTJ Personality Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 The ISTJ Driver Is Memory (Si) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .141

The ISTJ Copilot Is Effectiveness (Te) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .146

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The ISTJ 10-Year-Old Is Authenticity (Fi) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .151

The ISTJ 3-Year-Old Is Exploration (Ne) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .153

CHAPTER 13

ISFJ Personality Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 The ISFJ Driver Is Memory (Si) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .155

The ISFJ Copilot Is Harmony (Fe) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .160

The ISFJ 10-Year-Old Is Accuracy (Ti) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .165

The ISFJ 3-Year-Old Is Exploration (Ne) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .167

CHAPTER 14

INTP Personality Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 The INTP Driver Is Accuracy (Ti) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .170

The INTP Copilot Is Exploration (Ne) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .175

The INTP 10-Year-Old Is Memory (Si) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .180

The INTP 3-Year-Old Is Harmony (Fe) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .182

CHAPTER 15

INFP Personality Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184 The INFP Driver Is Authenticity (Fi) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .185

The INFP Copilot Is Exploration (Ne) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .190

The INFP 10-Year-Old Is Memory (Si) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .194

The INFP 3-Year-Old Is Effectiveness (Te) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .196

CHAPTER 16

ISTP Personality Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 The ISTP Driver Is Accuracy (Ti) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .199

The ISTP Copilot Is Sensation (Se) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .204

The ISTP 10-Year-Old Is Perspectives (Ni) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .208

The ISTP 3-Year-Old Is Harmony (Fe) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .210

CHAPTER 17

ISFP Personality Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213 The ISFP Driver Is Authenticity (Fi) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .213

The ISFP Copilot Is Sensation (Se) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .218

The ISFP 10-Year-Old Is Perspectives (Ni) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .222

The ISFP 3-Year-Old Is Effectiveness (Te) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .224

CHAPTER 18

ENTJ Personality Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227 The ENTJ Driver Is Effectiveness (Te) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .228

The ENTJ Copilot Is Perspectives (Ni) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .232

The ENTJ 10-Year-Old Is Sensation (Se) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .237

The ENTJ 3-Year-Old Is Authenticity (Fi) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .239

CHAPTER 19

ENFJ Personality Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242 The ENFJ Driver Is Harmony (Fe) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .242

The ENFJ Copilot Is Perspectives (Ni) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .247

The ENFJ 10-Year-Old Is Sensation (Se) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .252

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The ENFJ 3-Year-Old Is Accuracy (Ti) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .254

CHAPTER 20

ESTJ Personality Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256 The ESTJ Driver Is Effectiveness (Te) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .256

The ESTJ Copilot Is Memory (Si) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .261

The ESTJ 10-Year-Old Is Exploration (Ne) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .266

The ESTJ 3-Year-Old Is Authenticity (Fi) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .268

CHAPTER 21

ESFJ Personality Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271 The ESFJ Driver Is Harmony (Fe) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .272

The ESFJ Copilot Is Memory (Si) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .276

The ESFJ 10-Year-Old Is Exploration (Ne) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .281

The ESFJ 3-Year-Old Is Accuracy (Ti) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .283

CHAPTER 22

The FIRM Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286 Find Your Fixation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .287

Personality Fixations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .287

What If You Don’t Identify with Your Type’s Fixation? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .291

What If You Identify with a FIRM Fixation of a Different Type? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .291

CONCLUSION: THE PATH FORWARD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294

Think of Yourself as a Sovereign Person . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .294

Find Access Points to Become Who You Were Meant to Be . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .294

Change the World by Loving and Developing Yourself . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .295

APPENDIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297

Discovering your Myers-Briggs Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .297

Scoring Mechanism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .304

My Car Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .305

Car Model Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .306

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307

ABOUT THE AUTHORS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308

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Preface The real problem of humanity is the following: We have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and god-like technology.

— E. O. Wilson

Our Generation’s Identity Crisis Identity questions often take center stage in our society. People talk about gender identity, national identity, cultural identity, sexual identity, and even lost identity. Humanity seems to be in the midst of a collective identity crisis.

We don’t really know who we are anymore. We face crippling insecurity. On a micro level, online comment wars break out over anything from politics to vaccinations to child-rearing. On a macro level, real international wars break out over religion, culture, or national pride. These conflicts are rooted in identity and the defensiveness of our egos.

We may be so defensive because we feel our identities are constantly under attack. When a person lacks a strong sense of who they are, it is easier for them to marginalize or undermine another’s sense of self.

We are all searching for ourselves in an ocean of conflicting narratives.

How We Got into This Mess We believe there are several reasons why humanity faces this identity crisis: Technology evolves too fast, there’s a glut of information, and the world is increasingly globalized.

Technology Evolves Too Fast Technologies are outpacing our ability to adapt. Just over ten years ago, Bill Baker wrote in Destination Branding for Small Cities, “We are living in the most over-communicated time period in history.” At the time of his writing, the first iPhone—a piece of consumer technology that changed the game of connectedness and communication—had not yet been released.

According to Moore’s Law, the capacity of technological hardware doubles every two years, rendering advancements in consumer tech both more powerful and more affordable. This is why the phone in your pocket is more powerful than the room-sized computers NASA relied upon to calculate the Apollo moon landings. And on those phones, we install an infinite array of apps that we use to engage with each other, while simultaneously complaining about how we lack true connection and intimacy.

This is not to say that consumer technology is at fault or that our modern world is somehow wrong. Technology and digi- tal communication aren’t the problems; it’s that their evolution outpaces our own. We fear being ostracized and disliked. According to our Paleolithic emotions, being disliked by a large group is similar to getting kicked out of the tribe—a fate equal to death. Because of this, our mental wiring causes us to react to negative words from someone online as if our survival were in imminent danger. We have ancient imprints telling us to be careful, for if an entire group of people

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were to dislike us, we might die. Being hated by a group has negative survival implications, and there just hasn’t been enough time to upgrade these DNA-level blueprints.

Technology gives us new opportunities, but also pressures us to keep pace in a fast-moving world.

Information Overload We spend a lifetime attempting to know about everything but struggle to know ourselves. We have too much data coming at us, all too fast. We can’t sort through and vet the rapid outpouring of information in a constantly connected world. The internet is great for organizing and distributing all the world’s information, but it also creates in us a hunger for producing (and consuming) more and more.

People today know more about global politics, world events, and celebrity relationships than any previous generation knew. Yet somehow, we are often baffled about ourselves and the people we spend the most time around.

Globalization Leads to Fragmentation The world is becoming more globalized, yet also more fragmented and chaotic. We as humans used to strongly identify with our immediate families, tribes, and even nation-states, but as national borders dissolve and humans connect glob- ally, we are left without strong group identities and we lose our individual roles within those groups.

So, we gravitate to ideologies that bind us together. And we know that ideologies, rooted deeply in our egos, are often the source of escalated conflict. We then find ourselves tethered to our ideals rather than to other humans. We can see this with the rise of authoritarian leadership. Lacking individual identities, masses grasp at any cult of personality that can give them markers of strong identity. Even when the leadership is harsh and acts against the people’s best interest, people tend to accept it because it helps them feel a sense of self.

Why We Need to Know Ourselves Humans need to move past superficial markers of identity. It’s time to reach out and experience a deep sense of self-knowing. People need to know themselves to love themselves, and they need to love themselves to love others. We, the authors, believe that a strong sense of identity will help you learn to do those things, as well as achieve a greater sense of personal security and reduced anxiety.

Acceptance of Self and Others When you have a strong sense of identity, you can make space for and accept others. We believe that by understanding and honoring your own individuality, you will become empowered to claim your life’s passion, purpose, and mission.

A strong identity is built on feeling secure. Security comes from a modest self-evaluation, without inflating or diminishing your own talents. It is knowing you’ll be okay with whatever life throws at you. When we all show up as our secure selves, we will create a more peaceful world that makes space for others.

This often means agreeing to disagree. There will be disagreements as we create a world that honors individual expres- sion and supports everyone becoming the person they were meant to be. But disagreements and peace can coincide when individuals are confident in who they are. We nurture confidence when we take advantage of the tools designed to understand ourselves better.

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Personal Security A strong sense of identity inoculates you from being “hacked” by others who know you better than you know yourself. There is a growing amount of evidence that the 2016 United States presidential election was swayed by foreign govern- ments and private research firms. These actors used a combination of misinformation campaigns, personality insights, and psychographic data to “hack” into people’s behaviors, preferences, and motivations to influence the election’s outcome.

We are racing toward a new frontier of psychological possibilities, including psychological exploitation. Will you be pre- pared for the coming mental divide? There will be people who understand how their minds work, which will give them the control and power over themselves. They will have a strong sense of who they are, giving them greater influence over their own decisions. And there will be people who don’t learn about their personalities, don’t claim their identities, and could become sitting ducks for exploitation.

If you don’t know who you are and what motivates you, control is out of your hands. You are at the mercy of people who know how your mind works better than you do. Do you want to be vulnerable or would you like to get to know yourself, your learning styles, and your motivational core?

Reduced Anxiety Nearly all people grapple with the same series of questions: “What is my purpose, my meaning?” “What should I spend my life doing?” “Who should I spend it with?” When the answers to these questions don’t make themselves known, we can become anxious, afraid we’re running out of time, or uncertain of our own futures.

When you spend time and effort getting to know yourself, you 1) spot opportunities when they are right for you, 2) avoid wasting time on the wrong things, and 3) trust that things will happen when the timing is right, without heaping blame on yourself or otherwise getting into self-destructive cycles.

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Introduction Who are you really? How do you describe yourself?

How do you discover your true inner self and forge a path forward?

We’re a technological species, so let’s stick with what we’re good at. If we can develop consumer technologies that make our daily tasks effortless and medical technologies that will keep us alive past the age of 100, then why can’t we look at social technologies that can empower us through the chaos of our lives?

Social and personal technologies have been in development for thousands of years. They are our religions, belief sys- tems, meditation practices, and politics. We organize ourselves and our information into what Timothy Leary would call “reality tunnels”: These are our preferred ways of experiencing the world, and we try to stay in alignment with those tunnels.

It’s possible, in a world that overwhelms the ancient programming of our nervous systems, to find and develop technol- ogies that can help us hack into the systems of our very identity to become the change the world desperately needs. No other technologies are slowing down anytime soon. We need to play some catchup.

This book introduces you to one of the personal and social technologies we’ve found to have the most power in our lives: personality typology.

Of course, no model or system will ever completely explain your identity. You are much too complex for that. Just as standing on a map doesn’t transport you to a given location, learning about an element of your personality doesn’t suddenly deconstruct you to being only that thing. And just as a finger can point you to the moon, you don’t want to get too enamored with the finger. Focus instead on what it’s pointing to.

Once you gain increased awareness of all the elements of yourself, you can use your understanding in a million different applications. But one application we do request of you (it’s not a little thing): Please use the contents of this book to become the best version of yourself possible. The world needs us all to show up, be less consumed in our own egos, and infect the social ecosystem with the best ideas and memes possible. As a happy coincidence, doing this also means becoming a generally happier person with greater success rates in all areas of life.

One of the best tools we’ve found for discovery of the self is personality. Your personality isn’t who you are, but it can be a map or guide to discover who you are. And it is our belief that personality can not only help you find yourself as you are, but can also be a guide to help you become who you want to be.

In this book, we address the Myers-Briggs typology system and its foundation, the eight cognitive functions defined by psychiatrist Carl Jung. Using these models, we can see that there are unique and powerful expressions of the self that live deep inside each of us. It’s our life’s work to uncover and grow that true self.

What You’ll Gain from This Book This book goes beyond general personality-type descriptions and dives into Carl Jung’s cognitive functions, or what we’ve come to think of as the wiring of your mind. It takes personality theory to the next level and gives you a host of benefits, including:

• Insight into how your mind learns information and makes decisions

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• Discovering the best decision-making criteria to increase both the strength of your judgments and your confidence in yourself

• Awareness of which activities will help you grow as a person and improve your life

• A diagnostic of your natural strengths and blind spots

• The ability to get into a flow state

• Knowledge of how to manage and improve your own energy cycles

• Creating mastery by reallocating time toward your natural preferences

• Finding your hidden talents and bringing them into the world

• Recognizing all parts of yourself, even the unfamiliar, and learning how to integrate them into your identity

• Giving yourself permission to be who you really are, and giving others permission to be themselves, as well

How This Book Is Organized This book is divided into two basic sections: “System and Theory” and “The 16 Types.”

Section 1: System and Theory

• Chapter 1 shows you how your personality isn’t static, but is an entire system that produces you as the emergent (or result) of that system.

• Chapters 2 and 3 shows you the original psychological model that Carl Jung developed and Myers-Briggs built upon. We then show you how to decode your four-letter personality type to determine your mental wiring.

• Chapter 4 introduces the Car Model. We designed this simple tool to help you understand how your mind is wired, create a growth plan, and handle your blind spots.

• Chapter 5 details each of the cognitive functions.

Section 2: The 16 Types

• In Chapters 6 through 21, each of the 16 Myers-Briggs personality types will be discussed in depth and analyzed according to the Car Model.

• Chapter 22 discusses a model we developed called “FIRM” to help you work through the fixations of each of the types. Each personality type’s fixation is determined by the part of themselves with which they most identify and with their unmet needs.

The book concludes with “The Path Forward.” Here, we discuss the importance of understanding our own sovereignty, having control over ourselves, and undertaking personal growth. We also focus on three vital steps: awareness, permis- sion, and development.

Getting the Most from This Book This book is not designed to be a deep dive into all things Myers-Briggs, though it does cover the Myers-Briggs person- ality types in detail. Its purpose is to focus on growth and advice so you can become the best version of your personality

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type. It’s a primer of sorts. A map legend. A beginner’s field guide to help you navigate the sometimes treacherous landscape that is the world of Myers-Briggs, and in particular, the seemingly elusive and sometimes frustrating cognitive functions that were at the heart of Carl Jung’s theory of type.

You may be tempted to flip to the chapter on your individual personality type, but to better understand those chapters, we recommend first reading the chapters about the Car Model and how the cognitive functions work on a basic level.

Additionally, the book has a self-reporting personality test to help you determine your type. All personality instruments have an error rate, so the results of this test aren’t intended to be gospel truth. It is the first point of entry on your journey. Be open to other type possibilities as you read the book and look for the personality type that fits you like a glove. That’s your best-fit type, no matter what the results of the test were.

There is redundancy in the chapters that detail the Myers-Briggs types. For types that share the same cognitive func- tions, similar language has been used to describe both the characteristics and the exercises recommended for growth (though there are subtle changes when appropriate). This was a stylistic choice to allow you, the reader, to focus on your type description with an uninterrupted flow, and without needing to constantly reference other parts of the book.

Throughout the book, you’ll notice Learning Point Pauses that are designed to help you integrate the more challenging elements of the system. We have intentionally designed this to be in a workbook style to teach you a new language of sorts. We also have included “Reflection” questions to help you apply the information to your life and personal growth plan.

At the end of the book, you will find a template journal entry that allows you to fill out the “car model” for your person- ality type. This is key to taking all you learn and applying it to your life.

Our recommendation is that you read this book with a beginner’s mindset. While we enjoy geeking out on typology information, that’s not truly the intent of this book. We believe that getting the most out of this content requires a bit of radical honesty and humility about yourself.

Okay, enough setup. Let’s get started!

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Section One

SYSTEM AND THEORY

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CHAPTER 1

System of Personality Your personality is a type of technology that can be upgraded. But unlike the operating system on your computer or phone, there’s no corporation creating the upgrade for you. You are responsible for your own upgrades. This book is an instruction manual on how to hack into your own system to design, build, and implement a self-directed software upgrade for your personality.

Personality is one of those things no one can adequately explain, yet we all have a sense of what it is. Your personality is more tied to your experience of reality than any other single influence, making it both familiar and inscrutable. When you look at a piece of technology, like your smartphone, you experience it as separate from yourself. When it comes to your personality, you are inside it and immersed in it. Like a fish trying to describe water, where do we even begin?

When asked to explain something both intrinsic and complex like this, humans tend to either grossly oversimplify it, make it appear as if it’s out of our control, or call it static, unchangeable, and divinely ordained. How many times have you heard someone justify their behavior by stating, with a shrug, “That’s just my personality”?

While we tend to avoid taking ownership of our personalities when they manifest in less-than-ideal ways, we are at the same time proud and overprotective of them. Most of us can’t handle criticism of our behaviors, much less what we see as our identity. However, we seem to have no problem spotting the same types of walls and defensive strategies erected by others.

Inner work is hard—it’s time consuming, uncomfortable, and requires us to take ego hits. If we have to change, it means we weren’t okay in the first place. Seeing others as plastic and ourselves as static lets us off the hook. The work is on their shoulders, not ours.

But what if we could upgrade our strategies, thoughts, and feelings on a deep, core level—in those parts of us that we take for granted and assume were handed to us by divine origin? What if we could tinker with our deepest imprints, hack the programming that inhibits us, and upgrade defensive messages into happiness, empowerment, and a general feeling of contentment?

Let’s choose a definition of personality for the sake of this book and stick with it (most of the time). We say “choose” because there are seemingly a million options.

Personality is:

1 . The interface you use to engage with the world outside of yourself.

2 . Your nervous system’s preferred attunement and attention to specific types of information.

3 . The instrument you use to measure the information your nervous system picks up.

Our interface with the world is how we show up when interacting with others and the environment. It’s usually the most accessible part of how we experience ourselves because it allows a response from others and the environment, pro- viding us with real-world feedback. The feedback provides a mirror, and we can mistake how we’re perceived with the entirety of who we are. But that’s not the full story.

Additionally, since your personality is your nervous system’s gauge for what’s interesting and what’s not, it also acts as an instrument that chooses what your nervous system will pick up on and what it will ignore. The attunement part your

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personality is, to borrow a phrase from computer programming, the GIGO mechanism: Garbage In, Garbage Out. It determines the quality of information you’ll be inputting and the quality of information you’ll be outputting.

Ultimately, as our attention becomes more narrowed and focused on the things that naturally attract us and give us better experiences, we also calibrate how we evaluate what comes into our awareness. It’s not just quality of information; it’s our ability to determine how we define quality. “That’s good, and that’s bad” eventually becomes an entire value system, which influences our beliefs and judgments of how the world should work. We are pickier about the information we’re willing to take in and self-directed toward things which interest us.

Information in this sense also includes aspects of you—your behavior, your beliefs, the mental scripts you have running, your imprints,1 and the models you use to understand life. Each of these grows in sophistication to become separate technologies, but the root is in the information you pay attention to and determine as worthy: the accumulation of your experiences and how they struck you, which ones you decided to make part of you and which ones you decided to forget, your current values and interests, and a slew of things your DNA has added to the pile.

Our Favorite Personality Map Over the years of producing the Personality Hacker podcast, we’ve become familiar with a lot of technologies for under- standing ourselves. The ones we like the best provide maps for navigating the different parts within us. We use the word map intentionally.

“The map is not the territory,” as it’s been said, and we hold to that. Each system or model is simply a map of how things could be working, not an empirical representation of actual reality. Our mentor, the author and philosopher Robert Anton Wilson, once said, “A true map of New York would be utterly useless. Not only would you have to account for every detail of the city as it is, you’d have to account for every detail of how it had been since its inception. Every human, every rat, every element would have to be accounted for if it was ‘actual’ reality.” And, of course, that would be more information than is usable.

That’s why we create maps—they are intentionally oversimplified representations. And they are manageable chunks of information. For any terrain, multiple aspects can be represented on a map—road systems, attractions, topography, economics, political affiliations, climate—but rarely are they all displayed at once. We separate them out in order to master one piece of information at a time. We can build on accumulated knowledge, but it’s much harder to take all of that information in simultaneously.

The same is the case with personality maps, which help us understand who we are and how we perceive reality. When people dismiss a map of personality typology for being incomplete or limiting, we always look at each other and say, “Of course it’s not complete. No single map is. That’s its point in existing.”

Simply stated, maps are not reality. They are a representation of reality, just inaccurate enough to be useful. The goal is to familiarize ourselves with each personality map—or representation of the node in the system of who we are—and eventually see how all of these parts interrelate.

That said, some maps are better than others. Rand McNally puts out a better atlas than our daughter Piper’s “pirate’s treasure” maps, and the same applies with models of development. Of course, the quality of the map is entirely subjec- tive. Our six-year-old nephew Jaxon prefers Piper’s maps to Rand McNally’s.

All maps should be held loosely. By definition, they’re just inaccurate enough to be useful, and sometimes it’s tough to determine that sweet spot. Ultimately, the maps you choose will match your experience and gut responses, and often it’s the faith we have in certain “cartographers” that help us vet our choices. So these are the cartographers we will turn our attention to in this book: Carl Jung, Katharine Briggs, and Isabel Briggs Myers.

1 “Imprints” are the positive or negative programs that the brain is genetically designed to accept during certain points in development.

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In 1921, psychiatrist Carl Jung published a book called Psychological Types in an attempt to reconcile some of the pre- vailing theories of personality at the time. He determined that there was a pattern in how people perceive information and how they evaluate that information. This research on how one’s mind is wired to perceive and judge became the theory of cognitive processes, a.k.a. cognitive functions.

In the 1940s, Katharine Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers (both Jung enthusiasts) developed an instrument (or test) to determine which cognitive functions an individual was predisposed to use. The original Myers-Briggs Type Indicator used the four-letter designations, called “dichotomies,” as a “secret decoder ring” for identifying a person’s cognitive functions. It’s rarely used this way now, though increased online awareness of cognitive functions is turning that around.

Each year we teach a Profiler Training Course. The course is designed to teach our students how to cold-read others’ personality types with a high degree of accuracy. One of the first exercises we ask them to do is identify the ways in which they are already profiling people and how they think other people use profiling. We can almost predict the results of the exercise each year. Students group people into gender, race, age, socio-economic status, style, the car they drive, etc. You can pick up some elements of a person from these things, of course, but how the individual is wired to think is found under the surface of these outward markers.

For example, the way someone is dressed may give some indication of who they are, but it’s not a particularly sophisticated map. How we interpret what their style means is laden with so much narrative from our own biases. It can be really unreliable due to oversimplification and lack of fidelity.

A really good map helps account for our biases. It’s based on pattern recognition from many sources, and it ensures that our subjective experience isn’t as influential when evaluating who an individual is underneath.

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CHAPTER 2

Myers-Briggs Dichotomies and Cognitive Functions In 2010, we were presenting at a conference on personality types. Though it was a five-day affair, we had only ninety minutes to present the one glaring omission from the event: Jungian cognitive functions.

During the talk, a young man in the front row was furiously writing. Every few minutes his hand cramped, he shook it out, and he resumed writing as fast as he could. Afterward, he came up to us and said, “I’m Myers-Briggs-certified, and I have never heard any of the stuff you were teaching.”

That was our first clue. Despite the entire Myers-Briggs system being built upon the concept of cognitive functions, for decades the functions stayed in the realm of esoteric knowledge. The internet has made huge efforts in bringing cognitive functions to the forefront, but it’s been a slow process.

There’s a barrier of entry to the deeper aspects of Myers-Briggs, and even in the online communities that love to talk about the functions, many have the attitude that if you can’t figure out cognitive functions on your own, you don’t deserve to know.

Some amazing books have been written on cognitive functions, Isabel Briggs-Myers’ book Gifts Differing being the sem- inal work. Lenore Thomson’s book, Personality Type: An Owner’s Manual, is extraordinarily insightful, as are the books produced by Dario Nardi and Linda Berens, among others.

If you’ve ever read an article about how overvalued Myers-Briggs is, we guarantee it was written by a person who has never heard of how it relates to the cognitive functions. And we get it—the concept truly isn’t easy to grasp. It contains a lot of seemingly repurposed phrases and plenty of jargon, and if the tip of the iceberg of a model has enough value (which, in this case, it almost does), there’s really no need to plunge the icy depths in search of the rest.

However, to loosely quote Robert Anton Wilson, the best models are useful both when pared down to their essentials and when indefinitely expanded upon. While Myers-Briggs has usefulness at its most shallow levels, the rewards are commensurate with the work put into understanding it. The further down you go, the more beneficial the journey.

We want you to use this book as if it were your scuba equipment. You still have to plunge into the icy depths, but we’re going to make it as easy on you as possible. The world may not need yet another Myers-Briggs book, but until the phrase “Myers-Briggs” becomes synonymous with cognitive functions, we have to try.

There have been many books written about Myers-Briggs, but arguably the most famous work on the topic is David Keirsey and Marilyn Bates’ Please Understand Me, a New York Times bestseller that focuses on a theory called the four temperaments.

The four temperaments is a cool theory and a modernized version of the four humors, a personality type system that is so classic, it may have roots in ancient Egypt. The four temperaments are: Guardians (SJ), Artisans (SP), Idealists (NF), and Rationals (NT). You may already be familiar with them. However, we will not be discussing the four temperaments or the four humors in this book, as they do not relate directly to cognitive functions.

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Myers-Briggs Dichotomies Explained Remember when we said the four letters of your Myers-Briggs type can be used as a “decoder ring” to determine which cognitive functions you’re using? That’s because the functions came first, and the four-letter codes came later. But we’re going to start with the dichotomies, because they’re more recognizable than the cognitive functions, and are often the easiest access point.

There’s something very important for you to remember as we go through these. You may get attached to some of the principles you learn about dichotomies in this chapter. But the concepts of dichotomies and cognitive functions build on each other, so we recommend seeing dichotomies as a starting point. Keep that in mind as you later learn about the cognitive functions.

What follows is just an overview of the dichotomies. Think of this as the 20,000-foot view needed to get an overview of the landscape. As we gain topographical precision of the map, some of these concepts will seem almost silly in their simplicity.

The four dichotomies are sets of opposing characteristics meant to describe certain aspects of a personality. They are:

• Introversion vs. Extraversion2

• Sensing vs. iNtuition3

• Thinking vs. Feeling

• Judging vs. Perceiving

If you’re a Myers-Briggs enthusiast, you’ve seen a million descriptions of each of these characteristics. And even if you’re not an enthusiast (and this is the first Myers-Briggs personality book you’ve ever picked up, God help you4), you’ve at least heard about introversion and extraversion, both of which are popular concepts at the time of this writing.

Most descriptions of the dichotomies will include lists of behaviors to help you evaluate which side of the fence you fall on. And while we’re also going to do that, it’s important to know that your behaviors are influenced by a boatload of things: training from childhood, societal messaging, deep-rooted fears, etc. Behaviors are the emergent properties of the system of your personality, and the dichotomies are simply one node in that system.

For example, if you read a bulleted list of Introvert traits and one item is “reticence in conversation,” but you’re super chatty in social situations, don’t automatically assume you’re an Extravert. You could be an Introvert whose life circum- stances make conversations easier for you.

Introversion vs Extraversion: Inner World vs . Outer World Reality Most resources say this dichotomy is about energy management, and they’re not wrong. But descriptions of how energy is managed can be oversimplified and misleading. Here’s an example of oversimplification that we often read: “Introverts gain their energy by being alone, Extraverts by engaging with people.” This doesn’t seem to align with the chatty Introvert who loves to be around people, or an Extravert who can’t seem to leave a party fast enough.

2 We’ve chosen to use the Jungian spelling of Extravert and extraversion with an “a,” as opposed to the conventional spellings of Extrovert and extroversion. 3 In Myers-Briggs, Intuition is abbreviated as N, which is why we’ve chosen to write it as iNtuition in some places. 4 Just kidding. You’ve made a fabulous decision.

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The actual difference between introversion and extraversion is this: For Introverts, the inner world (the world inside of themselves) is the “real world,” the world that really matters. For Extraverts, the external world (the world outside of themselves) is the real world. It is this inner or outer reality from which a host of behaviors emerge.

This is why Introverts will pause slightly before they speak, as if they’re making sure their words first resonate internally before they put them out into the world. Extraverts are the opposite—they’ll often speak while they’re thinking, because hearing it outside of themselves helps them determine the value or truth of their own statement.

Relationships with Other People Not everything in the external world will resonate with the complex internal world of the Introvert. Introverts are put in the position of constantly reviewing information and reconciling it with what they know to be true internally. This can be quite taxing after a while, and time to themselves becomes a necessary reprieve.

The exception to this is when an Introvert makes space for another person in that inner world. This is most commonly seen when they mate or develop an extremely tight bond. The Introvert remaps their inner world to include the other person, who no longer seems at odds with the Introvert’s internal world. Introverts in this situation have reported that they could actually spend all their time with that person, and they usually feel lonely when that person is away.

On the other hand, Extraverts feel most at home when they are interacting with their environment. As a general rule, they find variety stimulating, and the more people they come in contact with it, the more interesting it all is. Too much time to themselves leaves them bored and restless, and they need to interact with their environment to recharge. But this doesn’t always require people. Simply going for a walk, getting out and about, or studying interesting things can be enough.

We all make space inside ourselves for special people. But for Extraverts who are charged and fueled by variety in their environment, spending too much time with a single person can begin to feel like being alone. Intending no insult to their loved one, they can become restless and want to get out into the world, with or without that person accompanying them.

Introverts, gun-shy from years of having to adjust themselves to fit the outside world, can become bashful and protective of their energy. Extraverts, realizing other people are full of new information and energy, can become extremely social to pursue that energy. But each person is unique, and how the two frames of mind show up can be counterintuitive.

For example, Introverts can become pontificators, people who take control of the conversation and just talk and talk and talk. Instead of adjusting to the outside world, they attempt to force the outside world to adjust to their inner world. In these situations, doing all the talking prevents a back-and-forth conversation that would quickly wear on the Introvert. An alternative example is the Extravert who is very aware of, and can fear, approval and disapproval from others. To an Extravert who is oriented to the outer world, disapproval can feel like an objective evaluation, and they may become shy despite wanting to be social.

There is an approximately 50/50 split in the population between Introverts and Extraverts, with some statistics indicating fractionally more Introverts.

Here’s what to look for as you determine whether you are an Introvert or Extravert:

EXTRAVERT

• Outer world is the “real world”

• Gets energy through engaging with environment

• Less wary of new experiences

• Uses open vowels when speaking, projects voice, “broadcasts”

• Animated, energetic; “loud” gestures

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• Uses “we” language

• Outwardly directed, more aware of environment

• “After thinker”— cannot understand life until they’ve lived it

INTROVERT

• Inner world is the “real world”

• Gets energy through alone time

• Self-protective and more wary of new experiences

• Closed mouth, softer tonality, holds back

• More subdued gestures

• Uses “I” language

• Inwardly directed, less aware of environment

• “Before thinker”— cannot live life until they’ve understood it

Reflection Which world is the real world to you? The inner world or the outer world?

How much alone time do you crave and feel the need for each day?

Sensing vs . iNtuition: How We Perceive Reality This next dichotomy in your four-letter code deals with how you perceive your world. Sensors prefer reliability of infor- mation, and iNtuitives prefer speed and depth of insight.

The first difference is that iNtuitives learn to trust pattern recognition to help them understand information quickly and perceive hidden connections between seemingly disparate things. They’re comfortable theorizing and speculating on what could be, both here and now as well as into the future. Basically, they extrapolate implications from only a few data points.

Sensors, of course, have this same ability. But they don’t trust it, so they don’t hone it. Instead, they trust reliable infor- mation, things that can be verified in the real world. Therefore, they become masters of historical information—their own history, as well as other people’s. Sensors also become fantastic at manipulating physical objects, have quicker reaction times, and tend to live in the moment. They don’t understand a need to question reality when it’s right there in front of them. Reality is reliable. Speculation isn’t.

Second, Sensors and iNtuitives have different relationships with time. If real, reliable, solid information is what Sensors choose to focus on, then the past and present contexts are most important. Sensors can’t rely on what hasn’t happened

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yet, so the future is far less interesting. On the other hand, iNtuitives are comfortable with seeing what isn’t there. The past doesn’t really hold their interest as more than a reference point for future predictions.

Third, the Sensor/iNtuitive dichotomy alters values and basic interests. For Sensors, values surrounding things like family, tradition, enjoying the moment, being responsive and getting ahead of problems, etc., are all rooted in the known and knowable, and therefore can be trusted. For iNtuitives, values focus more on the abstract: meaning-making, narra- tives, imagination, possibilities, perspectives, and “what if” questions. Conversation will generally revolve around these things, with little interest in small talk.

Both Sensors and iNtuitives have an important role in our world. Sensors often hold down the fort, managing and stew- arding infrastructures that keep us going as a society. iNtuitives are generally the trailblazers, coming up with new ways of looking at and doing things that end up producing new technologies and paradigms. It makes sense that fewer iNtu- itives would be needed—too much innovation, and everything collapses. But without innovation, the world stagnates.

There is an approximately 75/25 split in the population between Sensors and iNtuitives, favoring Sensors.

Here’s what to look for as you are determining whether you are a Sensor or iNtuitive:

SENSOR

• Likes verifiable/reliable information, comfortable with using five senses

• Seeks contentment

• Craves enjoyment, faces life observantly

• More observant than Ns regarding outside world, can be observant at the cost of imagination

• Talent for recreating/living in the moment

• Tends to create an enjoyable present and let the future take care of itself

• More safety-oriented and risk averse, in an ideological way if not in a physical way (i.e., prefers tried-and-true belief systems)

• More straightforward communication style

INTUITIVE

• Likes speed of information and deep insight, comfortable with speculation

• Often restless

• Craves inspiration, faces life expectantly

• Sees how things could be as opposed to how things are

• Can be imaginative at the cost of observation

• Struggles to be “present,” is future oriented

• More initiative/ambition for getting to the next phase

• Less risk-averse, more ideological; asks more “what if” questions

• More comfortable with failure for the sake of innovation

• Uses more symbols and analogies

Reflection What captures and arrests your attention more often: what could be, or what already exists?

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What is your threshold for abstract conversation?

What is your threshold for small talk and who/what/where conversation?

Thinking vs . Feeling: How We Evaluate Information and Make Decisions The third dichotomy in your four-letter code deals with how you make decisions and evaluate information. Thinkers use impersonal metrics to determine the value of an object, idea, or situation, while Feelers use personal, human-based considerations. Of course, all Thinkers feel and all Feelers think. Feelers can use analytical, cerebral processes to come to their conclusions just as Thinkers do. At the same time, Thinkers can use emotion-based considerations when decid- ing their values.

The most obvious way to observe a Thinker’s emotions in their value system is seeing how frustrated, upset, or even downright irate they become when people ignore what they believe to be accurate, effective, true, or real. If their met- rics aren’t honored, it can take quite an emotional toll on the Thinker.

On the other hand, Feelers can ignore their own emotions in order to maintain what they believe is right. Social consid- erations usually rank high on their list of values, and it’s not uncommon for a Feeler to put aside their emotions to keep harmony in an awkward situation.

It makes sense, however, that Thinkers would have data and metrics on their mind far more often, and would therefore be more comfortable and adept in careers, relationships, and other situations where data and resource management are favored. Feelers, by the same token, would have people and human interests on their radar, and so they will feel more at home with displays of emotion and interpersonal dynamics.

There is an approximately 55/45 split in the population between Feelers and Thinkers, favoring Feelers. When gender is taken into consideration, women highly skew toward Feeling, whereas men only moderately skew toward Thinking.

Here’s what to look for as you are determining whether you are a Thinker or Feeler:

THINKER

• Prefers impartial, impersonal data and metrics

• Cool socially, more distant, and won’t jump to connect; more interested in your info/data

• Won’t nod while listening, unresponsive

• Can be tactless, values truth over tact

• Can have stronger executive ability

• More likely to question other people’s conclusions

• Usually has a steady gaze and is more monotone when speaking

• Only emotions that “make sense” are valid in both self and others

• Ignores emotions in favor of data

• More businesslike than personal in conversation

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FEELER

• Prefers being personal and human-oriented

• Friendly and warmer in tone, often enjoys connecting and seeking connection

• Often nods in encouragement when others are talking

• Values tact over truth

• Makes a stronger politician and tends to have better social skills

• More interested in humans, including the speaker, when conversing

• Connects with personal stories

• Tends to agree with others rather than be confrontational, unless a value is in conflict

• Sees all emotions as valid

• Ignores data in favor of emotional experience

• More personal, less business-oriented

Reflection When making decisions, are you more persuaded by the impact the decision will have on people (yourself included), or are you more persuaded by data, metrics, and analysis?

When making decisions, do you listen to your head or your heart?

What angers you more: lack of thought or lack of empathy?

Judging vs . Perceiving: Do You Want Freedom or Organization? The fourth and final dichotomy in your four-letter code deals with how you organize your world. Perceivers organize their inner world to allow outerworld freedom, and Judgers organize their outer world to allow inner-world freedom.

When Judgers think, they like to wander the garden of their minds. Ideas and thoughts come to them the same way fish swim around in a koi pond, and it requires calm and peace to really focus or even see them clearly. If Judgers are deep in thought and are disrupted, it’s like disturbing the waters of that koi pond—the little ideas swim away, and the Judger may or may not be able to get them back.

This requires the Judger to have a measure of control over their external environment. They must be vigilant against potential disruptions. What starts out as a simple need to think grows into an all-encompassing need to have order in their environment. Judgers often report that they think better when their house is organized and they have no visual clutter. Therefore, it’s easier to keep the house tidy most of the time. It’s the same for their vehicle, work desk, private room, etc.

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Perceivers are the exact opposite. Their thoughts and feelings are well-organized, and if you interrupt a Perceiver in the middle of a thought, their mind generally tags and files it for later. Recalling it is simply a matter of finding the right sub- ject, category, or mental sticky note to retrieve it. However, some Perceivers are unaware of this phenomenon inside of themselves. They are unconsciously competent in having organized thoughts and feelings. On the other hand, Judgers are more aware of the lack of internal organization, most likely due to the frustration they experience at losing track of their thoughts when interrupted.

The ability to organize and track thoughts allows Perceivers to engage in their number-one favorite activity: improvisa- tion. For Perceivers, having complete freedom to act in the outer world, keeping all their options available, is extremely satisfying. But Perceivers must be able to make decisions quickly if they wish to effectively improvise or capitalize on opportunities.

A Perceiver’s mind may be illustrated by a batter in a baseball game, anticipating the moment when the pitcher throws the ball. They need to respond extremely quickly, making the executive decision when exactly to swing the bat. Having immediate access to information like the effect of the wind, the curve of the ball, and the weight required behind the hit gives the batter far more precision to effectively hit the ball in a controlled direction.

The result can be observed in Perceivers while they are driving, dancing, and in conversation. While Judgers can be quick-witted, it is usually Perceivers who are the best improv comedians. However, it also means they aren’t usually all that concerned about disruptions, and so household organization can get put on the back burner. It’s a common Perceiver trait to throw clothes around negligently, ending up with a “floordrobe.”

Another trait of Judgers is planning. Unless the Judger has taught themselves to be okay with improvisation and acting on the fly, they will usually be quite uncomfortable when thrown into a situation they didn’t expect. Even a little bit of warning as to what’s coming up next will help a Judger relax. The more a Judger gets to plan, the better they feel.

Perceivers can also benefit from planning, but they will often excel in situations that put pressure on them. They may unconsciously procrastinate on assignments and projects, having learned over time that they perform best in the elev- enth hour. This same last-minute mechanism rarely comes through for a Judger. It’s unreliable, at best.

Simply put, in last-minute situations, Perceivers can pull a rabbit out of a hat while Judgers can get overwhelmed and lock up. But that’s not how either would self-identify or describe themselves.

As a final note, there are times when Judgers are sloppy and unorganized and Perceivers are meticulous and planned. For example, a Judger may have an organized life but a messy bedroom. The return on investment on cleaning their bedroom may not be high on the list of priorities since no one but themselves will see it. A Perceiver may have inte- grated the importance of a clean house or car and not allow themselves to have a single item out of place. These are exceptions, however, and tied more to the specific cognitive functions an individual is using.

There is an approximately 55/45 split in the population between Judgers and Perceivers, favoring Judgers.

Here’s what to look for as you are determining whether you are a Judger or Perceiver:

JUDGER

• Uncomfortable when they don’t know what to expect

• Tends to follow plans

• Is usually better at long-term planning

• Tends to be early or on time

• Takes pleasure in finishing projects

• Thinks often about the future or past

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• Is distracted by a chaotic environment

• Is at their best in familiar environments

• Is frustrated by open loops

• Understands social structure, and is more likely to be compliant

• Usually wants to avoid risks

PERCEIVER • Focused when they don’t know what to expect

• Tends to follow impulses

• Is usually better at responding to crisis

• Tends to be on time or late

• Takes pleasure in starting projects

• Focuses on the present moment

• Is indifferent to or energized by a chaotic environment

• Is at their best in stimulating environments

• Is frustrated by restricted options

• Is more likely to be counterculture and rebellious about social rules

• Usually enjoys the thrill of uncertainty

Reflection What bothers you more: when your life is disorganized or your options are limited?

Do you like to plan ahead or prefer to be spontaneous?

Are you better at starting projects or finishing projects?

Dichotomies: In Conclusion There are sixteen possible combinations of the four dichotomies. We will go into the qualities of each of these types later in the book. They are:

ESTJ ESFJ ISTJ ISFJ ESTP ESFP

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