Personality Tests (Newsletter No. 50)
“You’re simply not an atheist in your actions, and it is your actions that most accurately reflect your deepest beliefs—those that are implicit, embedded in your being, underneath your conscious apprehensions and articulable attitudes and surface-level self-knowledge. You can only find out what you actually believe (rather than what you think you believe) by watching how you act. You simply don’t know what you believe, before that. You are too complex to understand yourself.
It takes careful observation, and education, and reflection, and communication with others, just to scratch the surface of your beliefs.”-Jordan B. Peterson
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Funnily and appropriately, the moment I decided to make a post about personality tests, I immediately had the urge to caution: please do not consider these tests as be-all end-all prescriptive and descriptive. The best-case scenario is that they offer some insight into who/how you are. How to amplify your strengths and illuminate your weaknesses to make sure that your weaknesses don’t mess up your aim for purpose in life.
My worst fear is that people take these tests and misinterpret the results as “Aha! This is just who I am, this is why I act this way! Therefore, this is just how the rest of the world should navigate me.” My fear is that these tests would be the source of one’s villain origin story…or more realistically, aimless half-life origin story.
Anyways, here are the tests, not ranked from best to worst, but rather IMO, from shallow to a bit deeper. All of them address slightly different facets. Even the least useful diagnostic is still a bit useful which can still turn into great usefulness, particularly when its usefulness is not ignored but also not overstated.
Personality tests are fascinating because, even though a test can’t fully describe a person, there are indeed patterns of archetypes within friend groups, career teams, family dynamics, and other social collectives (my latest favorite expression of this is Succession). Take these tests and observe away at upcoming holiday gatherings, haha!
WHO ARE YOU?
1. MBTI / MBTI Free Version
2. Enneagram / Enneagram Free Version
3. BigFive / BigFive Free Version
4. Principles You (free)
Honorable Mentions: I asked around for people’s favorite tests and these also came up
1. The Four Tendencies (free)
2. Human Design (free)
3. Clifton Strengths
🎶 Piece of the Day 🎶
in its raw and unpolished form
The Face Stack Ring Set. An androgynous face composed of 4 separate rings in a peaceful, neutral expression—stoic is the intention.
That’s all for today. Let me know your thoughts!
Sincerely,
Kristy