I’ve just finished week 3 of my Myers-Briggs trials. This week focused on feeling.

I didn’t think this trial would be especially difficult, but it turned out to be the hardest one by far of the three I’ve done.

While I’m definitely a thinker overall, I answer some of the MBTI questions as a feeler would, so I didn’t think I was that one-sided. On the other hand, thinking is the dominant function of an INTP (also of an ISTP, ESTJ, and ENTJ), so maybe that’s why it was so hard to act differently.

I tried to practice empathy by looking at people and imagining how they felt. At one point I was even talking to some trees, saying that they probably don’t like having lights wrapped around them during the day when they’re not being used. I even apologized for not knowing their names and having to call each one of them “Mr. Tree.” This all felt a bit silly to me.

I had meant to re-read the oneness chapter from Personal Development for Smart People, but I didn’t get around to it. I had also meant to spend some time around art and focus on how it made me feel (a suggestion from RL David), but the art gallery near me must be under renovation or something, because there’s currently no art in it.

I guess it didn’t help that I’m working on a particular section of my next ebook that demands all the logic I can muster. However, I didn’t want to let this experiment be too disruptive, so I decided not to stop working on that.

I guess my main stumbling block is that I don’t have enough patience. I tried to slow down when reading feeling-oriented blog posts so I could absorb the feeling vibes, but I kept wanting to finish them quickly and move on to something else. I tried to listen to a feeling-oriented audio, but I kept having to switch over to Firefox and do something else because I couldn’t concentrate on the audio. I also got into an argument with someone because I wasn’t patient enough.

I think I might be able to work on this by practicing meditation. I’ve tried it a few times, and only once have I been able to make it through the full 20 minutes that I had planned. I keep thinking about things I have to do, and it becomes too hard to just sit there, so I sometimes can’t even make it 5 minutes before giving up. I figure that in addition to the usual benefits of meditation, I could also use it as a tool to measure my progress in developing enough patience to sit there for 20 minutes and feel instead of think.

Yet another week of realizing how attached I am to my personality. I think the worst must be over, but I’m looking forward to the end. That’s the good thing about your non-preferences: there are only four of them.

In week 3 of my Myers-Briggs trials, I’ll be focusing on feeling. Thinking and feeling refer to the way we prefer to make decisions.

• Thinkers make decisions in an objective, detached way. They determine the right thing to do through logical reasoning.
• Feelers make decisions in a subjective, attached way. They determine the right thing to do by putting themselves in other people’s shoes, seeking to maintain harmony.

A good way to think of the difference is to consider justice versus mercy. Thinkers think justice is more important, while feelers think mercy is more important.

I expect that this trial will be a lot easier now than it would have been a few years ago. I used to not have much patience with people who did things wrong. But now I’m more forgiving of people who say “nucular” and “supposably” and “I could care less.” It still bugs me, but I’m much better at biting my tongue. Since criticizing rarely produces a desirable outcome, I try to pick my battles more carefully.

Beyond just being nice, I plan to make a point of thinking about how other people feel. Not just people I’m talking to, but everyone within range. A good role model for this would be the empath Deanna Troi from Star Trek. I only saw a few episodes, but I remember thinking it would be really creepy to be around her because of the mind reading thing. I guess non-telepathic empathy is fine though.

I can also re-read the section on oneness from Steve Pavlina’s book Personal Development for Smart People. This is all about feeling a connection with everyone and everything. It came across as a foreign concept to me, so I could definitely benefit from reading it again.

We’ll see how good a job I do at being nice. Go feelers!

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Because of your click-throughs, I received free admission to Michael Martine’s blog traffic seminar. Thanks!

It really wasn’t that I did such a great job, just that I was the only one of the seminar attendees who tried. I’ve won a fair number of contests only because there was no competition.

I’ve just finished week 2 of my Myers-Briggs trials. This week focused on sensing.

I was really surprised to see how hard this was. I didn’t think it would be nearly as tough as the extraversion trial, but it proved to be much harder. Fortunately though, I said I would judge myself on effort, not results.

Some psychologists consider the sensing/intuitive dichotomy to be the most important of the four. I can see how that could be true. I’m not particularly one-sided here according to my MBTI results, but I found it impossible to turn off my intuition (and remember that intuition here has nothing to do with mystical insight, which I don’t have at all).

Since I wasn’t able to stop using intuition, I tried to simply use more sensing. I tried to notice details by deliberately shouting out what I saw, heard, etc (some people must have thought I was crazy). While this felt kind of weird, it had the pleasant side effect of letting me realize that I had always walked right past this great smoothie place and never noticed it. Yogi Berra was right: “You can observe a lot just by watchin.”

I happened to have a dentist appointment, and of course it was easy to focus on what I was seeing, hearing, and feeling. It was just a cleaning, but if I had gotten the drill, it would have helped the experiment.

I thought the best part of sensing would be the whole “live for the moment” thing, so I tried to make every little thing seem special. When I ate an apple, I thought, “This apple is really sweet and crunchy. I can feel the vitamins and fiber coming into my body. I won’t always be able to eat apples, so for now, this apple is all that matters.” Yes, this got tiring very quickly, because it just didn’t come naturally.

One way to look at it is that sensors are grounded in reality while intuitives have their head in the clouds. But that’s where I want my head. Reality bores me.

Another interesting experiment, but I’m glad it’s over.

In week 2 of my Myers-Briggs trials, I’ll be focusing on sensing. Sensing and intuition refer to the way we prefer to take in information.

• Sensors rely on what their five senses tell them. They’re detail-oriented and well grounded in reality and practicality.
• Intuitives pay less attention to the raw data coming from their five senses, and more attention to their interpretation of it. They look at the big picture, patterns, connections, and future possibilities. (While the word intuition is often used to refer to psychic flashes, that’s not what we’re talking about here.)

I thought this would be an easy trial, because I’m not too far on the intuitive side. I don’t consider myself to be impractical or adverse to detail at all.

For years, I did my taxes with pen and paper, not even using a calculator because I liked adding and subtracting by hand. I also did my taxes twice each time: once by rounding amounts off to the nearest dollar (which the IRS encouraged) and once without rounding (which the IRS allowed), to see if it made a difference. That’s about as far to the sensing side as you can get. (I eventually started using a calculator, and then TurboTax as my situation got more complicated.)

I’ve done one day of my sensing trial, and I’m finding it very hard to turn off my intuition. What you see when you look at a sunset is supposed to tell you whether you prefer sensing or intuition. Today I saw a sunset, and I tried to see it like a sensor by thinking about what color the sun was, what time it was, how the days are getting shorter, etc. But whenever I see a sunset, I always hear Will Smith’s watch beeping in I Am Legend, telling him to hide because the monsters are coming out soon. I hear that every single time.

I was working on the sensing vs. intuition section of The Personality Puzzle when I read Brip Blap’s post big picture, little picture. He said:

“One of the most apt criticisms you could make of the writing I do on brip blap would be that I’m awfully big picture. I like to think in terms of grand goals (‘achieve perfect work/life integration, have a perfect lifestyle, achieve financial independence’) without attention to the detail to support that (‘fix your credit score, maximize your tax credits’, etc.).”

When I read that, I realized that his focus on the big picture is exactly why I like his blog. I’m interested in finance, but I had a hard time finding finance blogs I like because so many of them like to overload you with details, most of which I’ve already known for years. Of course, many people like that kind of stuff, and sensors are in fact the majority.

Since I’m on this topic, let me give you a quick list of the best finance blogs for people who prefer intuition over sensing:

(In alphabetical order)

1. brip blap – personal finance, wealthbuilding and the journey to financial freedom. Not purely about finance, but it’s all good. Steve has written about many interesting things, such as how he lost 100 pounds (meaning weight loss, not a drop in his British stocks).

2. erica.biz – Erica Douglass shows you how to make millions! She’s a number cruncher, but she also has huge aspirations for herself and the world. Selling her web hosting business for $1.1 million was just a start.

3. Sentient Money – Financial intelligence for an ever changing world. Chad is very heavy on details, but he’s really good at seeing what the data means. He’s also an INTP like me, so you know he must be cool.

Jon Morrow’s magnificent blog OnMoneymaking.com would have been on this list, until he sold it.

What was I talking about? Oh yeah. I’m going to approach this trial by thinking about what new things I should do, not what things I should stop doing. So for example, I’m not going to change the posts I write, because that wouldn’t be good for anyone. I’ll just be adding some sensing on top of my normal activities.

I don’t mean to come off as all anti-sensing, because there are definitely some great sensing role models, such as Tim Ferriss (a pretty clear ISTP in my opinion) and Darren Rowse (probably an ISFJ). I’m just having a hard time keeping the upside of sensing in mind. However, there are plenty of overly intuitive freaks who have absolutely no connection to reality. Still, I find imagination so much more interesting than facts.

I’m not exactly sure what to do in this trial, but today I made a point of describing what my senses were telling me. Just talking to myself and saying “Those leaves are red” or “This apple is crunchy.” Yeah, that’s pretty obvious, but it’s just to get into the habit. By being more grounded in the physical world, I hope to develop more of a “live for the moment” attitude and not think so much about the future.

Today I read two ebooks about SEO, which I’m sure tends to be much more interesting to sensors because of how much it relies on keyword data. One of these ebooks was Fast Track for Blog Success by Kathy Hendershot-Hurd. It was available for free for a short while, and I got it just in time, but unfortunately not in time to tell you about it while it was still free. It’s now $24.95, and it explores the keyword usage of two blogs, showing why one was sold for a much higher price because of its SEO.

The other ebook was the second incarnation of Naomi Dunford’s Ninja SEO School. I had previously read the first version, but not the new one. To be fair, this was no help at all in my sensing trial because Naomi is a super intuitive. However, that’s what makes her ebook so refreshingly entertaining as well as informative.

As before with my extraversion trial, my goal is not to switch completely to sensing, but just to make an honest effort to use far more sensing than usual. Obviously it has its benefits, so I just want to try to experience them. Go sensors!

I’ve just finished week 1 of my Myers-Briggs trials. This week focused on extraversion.

The timing of this experiment helped me tremendously. Since I’m on a mini-retirement, I have a lot more free time. That made it much easier to spend more time with other people, because I still had plenty of time to myself. If I was still working, it would have been ten times harder.

Even so, it’s a good thing I decided to judge myself by effort instead of results. Despite my efforts to talk more than any reasonable person should, I still had someone ask me, “Why are you so quiet?” Oh well, I tried. My main difficulty is that I find it so hard to talk when I have nothing to say. I just can’t get random words to come out of my mouth.

While I confirmed that I like introversion a whole lot better (as I expected), there’s one particular aspect of extraversion that I think is worthy of consideration by introverts. Introverts tend to be slow to speak, and then later be mad at themselves for not saying anything. Extraverts tend to be quick to speak, and then later be mad at themselves for saying something they shouldn’t have. Of course, both extremes are bad, but maybe it’s worth trying to err a bit on the other side for a change.

I found it funny that some people didn’t want to let me be an extravert. One night I was having dinner in a bar, and the bartender wouldn’t stay and talk to me, even though he wasn’t busy. I was thinking, “Come back here! I need to make small talk to get extraversion credit!” But I didn’t force it.

Some people say that eating in front of other people makes them nervous. I don’t feel that myself, but I do prefer not to talk much when eating, because it’s just too much going on. Besides, you’re not supposed to talk with your mouth full, right?

I also don’t like loud places. I just don’t get how people can be energized from being around noise. I managed to avoid the peak times at the bars, but one place was still pretty loud. It didn’t kill me, but it’s sure not my preference. I don’t like smoky places either, but fortunately I didn’t find any.

Twitter is a great socialization tool for introverts. Even though it’s online, I think tweeting can be considered extraverted because it’s all about shallow conversations with lots of people. The reason it’s great for introverts is because you only have to follow who you want to follow, you only have to reply when you want to, and you can turn it off whenever you want. In the last week, I spent much more time on Twitter, and tweeted a lot more by relaxing my standards of what was tweet-worthy. I didn’t find this hard at all, but it came with a huge downside of taking up lots of time because of the constant interruptions.

I spent a lot of time on the phone, which was kind of hard to do. I like face-to-face conversations a lot more than phone conversations. I’m not sure why, but they feel completely different. Spending time with someone means something, but a phone call always seems like an interruption to me. Sometimes it’s a necessary interruption, but then I feel like I have to say what I have to say, and then get back to what I was doing. Even when I like the call, I always think that seeing them in person would be a much better use of my time.

One extraverted ritual that I decided not to partake in is the phone face-off. I was talking to someone when another call came through, and I pushed the “ignore” button. I told the person I was talking to that for some reason, my new cell phone keeps beeping even after you push “ignore.” When they heard I had another call, they said it was fine if I wanted to take it. But it never occured to me for a second to do a phone face-off. I think you should just talk to who you’re talking to, and let the other person leave a message. There could be exceptions, but I didn’t even know who the other person was.

Well, extraversion isn’t for me, but your results may differ. I’m glad I did this experiment, but I’m looking forward to returning to normal.

In week 1 of my Myers-Briggs trials, I’ll be focusing on extraversion.

The key difference between introverts and extraverts is where they get their energy: from themselves, or from others. If you imagine that each person is powered by a battery, an introvert charges their battery when they’re alone, and drains it when they’re with others. For extraverts, it’s the other way around.

As king of the introverts, this trial would normally be very difficult for me because I often use up my whole battery at work. After I get home, it’s a struggle to seek out more socialization. It’s nothing against anyone personally, but that’s just how introverts work; they need their alone time.

This was a shame because I used up my whole battery on people that I didn’t necessarily want to use it for, and then people I did want to use it for were greeted with my dead battery. Fortunately, I’m on a mini-retirement now, which will make this much easier.

I have a wedding to go to this weekend, so that will provide plenty of opportunities for extraversion. Other than that, I plan to spend much more time with people in person and on the phone. I’ll also practice vocalizing my thoughts before I have time to finish them, doing my thinking out loud. And Twitter will provide a good outlet for small talk.

I can’t go completely extraverted because I still need to read stuff, etc. But the point is to make a significant effort to act far more extraverted than usual. I’ve already done one day of this, but I’ll save my thoughts for the end of the week. Go extraverts!

I mentioned before that I would start off my mini-retirement with a really wacky personal growth experiment. I originally got the idea from a series of ThunderCats episodes I saw in 1985, and I saw that it would tie in perfectly with my new ebook, The Personality Puzzle.

Does anyone remember the ThunderCats trials? Lion-O was the hereditary Lord of the ThunderCats, but he couldn’t be officially anointed until he passed his trials to prove his worth. He had to defeat each of the ThunderCats in their specialty, showing that he was stronger than Panthro, faster than Cheetara, more cunning than WilyKat and WilyKit, and had more mind power than Tygra.

I’ve decided to do something similar by subjecting myself to a series of trials involving the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. For the next four weeks, I’ll be acting out my non-preferences, deliberately acting against my personality just to see what it’s like.

That means that I’ll be straying from my natural type of INTP to act like an ESFJ. That is,

• extraversion instead of introversion
• sensing instead of intuition
• feeling instead of thinking
• judging instead of perceiving

I’ll be acting out each of my non-preferences one at a time. Four weeks, four trials.

While this is in no way recommended, I wanted to see if I could survive a taste of the other side. We’re supposed to embrace our preferences instead of trying to change them, but I thought it would be interesting to see things from a different perspective. If I can make an honest effort each week to act out the appropriate type, I’ll consider myself to have passed the trials.

Although extraversion would come first if I did them in order, I was planning to save it for last, since I know it’s going to be the hardest. Wouldn’t it be a good idea to start with an easy one to get warmed up? But then I remembered that the ThunderCats made Lion-O start off against the mighty Panthro, the logic being “If you can’t get past him, there’s no point in going on.” Good point. Extraversion it is, then.

I’ll write a post at the beginning of each week to explain what I’m going to do, and then another post at the end of the week to recap it. I’ll link to these posts below.

Week 1: Extraversion (recap)
Week 2: Sensing (recap)
Week 3: Feeling (recap)
Week 4: Judging (recap)
The end: Overall recap

A few months ago, I read several blog posts that badly butchered the concept of introversion, twisting the definition and falsely assuming that it’s inferior to extraversion. Being a huge fan of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and the incredible insight it offers into personality differences, I had to set the record straight.

I wrote two posts exploring the differences between introverts and extraverts, as those terms were meant to be used. One of them quickly became one of my most popular posts ever, receiving comments such as “O.m.f.g my brain had an orgasm reading this thank you so true.” The other, a guest post on Pick the Brain, hit the Digg front page. But there was still a lot more to be said, far more than could be fit into a post or even a series of posts. It had to be an ebook.

I took those two posts, quadrupled them, squared them, and put them on steroids to make The Personality Puzzle: Understanding What Makes People Tick. It covers all eight elements of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, how they interrelate to make up someone’s personality, why this is relevant and useful in our lives, and lots of examples with real and fictional people.

Plenty of information is available on the sales page, and I love that sales page so much I want to marry it. I know that some people have concerns about scientific validity, labeling, and so forth. If you do, I ask you to read the sales page before commenting, because it addresses the most common objections. If you have any other concerns, feel free to leave a comment below.

I’ll leave you with my foreword from the ebook.

I first took the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator assessment in 2005. The company I worked at brought in a consultant to give us the questionnaire and conduct a workshop to explain what it all meant. While I found it intriguing, I didn’t really see how it was that useful.

My results came back and said I was an INTP; heavy on the I, light on the P. As we went through the workshop and learned about the different preferences, I wasn’t sure that I had been given the right type. The consultant said that sometimes the assessment isn’t accurate, and I could feel free to decide my own type regardless of what it said.

As the workshop continued, it became a running joke that I was the most indecisive person on the planet, struggling much more than everyone else to figure out what my type was. At the end of it all, everyone had confirmed their type. Everyone but me, that is. But pressed for a decision, I weakly declared myself an ISTJ. I read a description of ISTJs, and I thought, “Well, I guess that could be me, maybe.” But it didn’t feel right.

Fast forward to 2008, when I find myself meeting with a career coach to see if I’m in the wrong kind of job. At some point the MBTI happened to come up, and it took her all of ten seconds to determine that I was definitely not an ISTJ, and probably an INTP.

When I read a description of INTPs, I knew that was me, and suddenly my type made sense. Maybe there was something to the MBTI after all! I was hooked, and I began digging deeper. After reading several books and many articles, and typing people from Abraham Lincoln to Zig Ziglar, I couldn’t believe how much more there was to know than what I learned in that one-day workshop.

The MBTI originated from the ideas of revolutionary Swiss psychologist Carl Jung, in his 1921 book Psychological Types (translated to English in 1923). His work was continued by an American mother and daugher team, Katharine Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers. In 1962, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator was published by the Educational Testing Service. But it didn’t become popular until the mid-1980s, and it continues to be grossly underestimated today.

If everyone understood the MBTI, every dating site would have members put their type in their profile, right up there with all the vital stats. Trial lawyers would (if it were legal) use potential juror’s types to help choose the best jury for a case. Friends and family members would consider type when communicating with each other, and learn to understand each other better. In some extreme cases, the MBTI has been responsible for saving marriages. Not saving marriages in the way that people say chocolate saved their marriage, but I mean people actually filed for divorce and then changed their minds after learning how to reconcile their differences.

There are practically limitless applications of the MBTI in understanding people, not to mention understanding our own strengths and weaknesses that we might not even be aware of. While I’ll be the first to admit that type doesn’t explain everything, it sure tells us an awful lot for four lousy letters.

But for most people, it still remains shrouded in mystery and unfounded objections. I wrote this ebook to bring an understanding of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator to the general public. Unlike most workshops which are fun but not that informative, and unlike most books which are informative but not that fun, this ebook is a lot of both.

I’ve pulled together plenty of heavy-duty psychological research and mixed it with real-world examples, including everyday situations as well as a look at famous people and characters. There’s really nothing else like it. Whether you’re a type theory newbie or a die-hard typewatcher, this ebook will give you a fresh and entertaining perspective on enhancing your life with the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.

P.S. This ebook is really, really good. As if it weren’t worth parting with a measly $27, there’s an affiliate program paying 50% ($13.50) on each sale, so the ebook can easily pay for itself and then some.

Order The Personality Puzzle right now and finally understand what makes people tick.