Myers-Briggs Type — do I fit?

I’ve been assigned many of the 16 Personality Types. So, if any, which is best?

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Circular

6 min readMay 2, 2017

I think I have always wanted to gain a better understanding of myself. Always wanting to know who I am, how I got here, and why. It doesn’t take long to realise that the easier question of these three is “Who am I?”

There are many ways to attempt to break down how someone is or who they are. I’m not really into Astrology and Star Signs — honestly. I mean.. when I was far younger I regularly looked at what Mystic Meg had in store for me, to suddenly see that my Star Sign had changed. What? How does this make any sense. Because my D.O.B falls on the cut-off, I was suddenly the next Star Sign.

Well, yeah. I see that it depends which zodiac system you follow.. or some nonsense like that. I just can’t keep up. I’d be quite interested in categorising myself if at least there was some consistency.

Then — seemingly out of nowhere — a few years ago I came across 16 Personalities. It’s a website that uses that Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) to assign a personality type to those that take the test.

I took the test a few times back then and I found that over time I was getting different results. I was stuck thinking, “Crap! It’s just like Astrology.” I found, though, that they still better reflected my personality because of how in-depth they were.

For some context. The options are as follows:

Mind — [I]ntoversion vs. [E]xtraversion,
Energy — i[N]tuition vs. [S]ensing,
Nature — [T]hinking vs. [F]eeling,
Tactics — [J]udging vs. [P]erceiving,
and finally an additional tag, Identity — [A]ssertive vs. [T]urbulent

(This final tag technically means there are 32 types, but I’m not totally sure why it’s mostly ignored.)

There are four main Roles — Analysts, Diplomats, Sentinels and Explorers — which determine goals and interests.

Then there are Strategies — Confident Individualism [I___-A], People Mastery [E___-A], Constant Improvement [I___-T], Social Engagement [E___-T] — which determine our preferred way of achieving goals. So, for example, if you’re an Assertive Extrovert your strategy is People Mastery.

So, the confusion! The last time I took it — around about Jan 17 — my result was INTP-T (a turbulent, constantly improving, Logician). In the past I have had numerous different results. It made sense each and every time, though, because at times I was put down by life my MBTI would change slightly. Or, the opposite, when I was elated it would also change.

I looked back over some past results. I took the test again. And I tried to see how I place amongst others in these categories — for the fun of it, mostly. Firstly, I recall once getting ENTJ-A, INFP-T and ENTP-T as results in the past but I don’t have any screenshot of those.

The Commander

An ENTJ is a Commander and I was an Assertive one — looking back I think I was just a bully. Steve Jobs is(/was 🙃) a Commander. So is Francis J. Underwood.. the cinematic examples are fun too! A result of ENTJ-A gives falls into the People Mastery strategy. They are extraverted, confident in their abilities and excel in social situations without caring what others think about them. See how manipulative Underwood was in House of Cards.

The Debater

I was once a Turbulent ENTP. The Debater — looking back I think I was a bit erratic and didn’t like being wrong. Thomas Edison was a Debater. So was The Joker — great company, of course! A turbulent extrovert excels by way of Social Engagement. Energetic perfectionists that fall victim to emotions off both extremes.

Around this time, things in my life were mostly good. I think it was around mid-2015 and I had been regularly going out, enjoying the company around me, and so on. But, life happens. There’s a second test I took around this time (screenshot is attached way below — it looks like a web). This showed me to be quite emotionally unstable which suits well with the turbulent Debater.

The Logician

Jan ’17 I had got the result INTP-T. I found good company in being a Turbulent Logician. Firstly, Einstein is pretty cool. And, well, Neo is a different class entirely. Logicians strive for Constant Improvement. High-achieving perfectionists dedicated too their craft, while worrying far too much about performance.

The Architect

It has only been four months but I thought for the purpose of this piece, I should retake the test!

The change in four months is only from Prospecting to Judging; but, in the 2 years since I was a Debater it is massive! I’ve remained incredibly turbulent and become more intuitive. The blatant massive change is from 53% Extraversion to 75% Introversion.

Elon Musk is an Architect. Gandalf is an Architect.

A turbulent Architect is aims for Constant Improvement just like the Logician does. Though some traits seem a bit off, I understand why I have switched. The difference from Prospecting to Judging, and I believe this is the addition of a plan.

Somewhere under all of this chaos I have had a plan brewing. Now, it’s a matter of sticking with that and executing. Truthfully, I have an opportunity to with Circular and the use of Asana is now helping me keep on top of it.

I have received a result of all four types of Analyst. Commander → Debater → Logician → Architect. I don’t feel so surprised about these results. If it matters at all, the subjects I excelled in the most during school were Physics and Mathematics. Though I am not too smart with it anymore.

Only once — as a Diplomat — have I not been an Analyst. I have never got a result of a Sentinel or an Explorer. I’m shocked at never being a Sentinel because I give a sh*t and I am quite emotional. I’m even more shocked at never being an Explorer.

When I retook the test tonight, I had to highlight some of the questions that came up along the way and scream internally at how closely they link to this previous test I had taken.