I don’t take Internet personality quizzes. I think they’re an inferior method for wasting time at work compared to Sudoku. But a friend asked me to take a Myers-Briggs test and report back. So I guess I’m an INFJ. That is to say, Introverted 22%, Intuitive 62%, Feeling 12%, Judging 44%. Apparently that means I am a:

• slightly expressed introvert
• distinctively expressed intuitive personality
• slightly expressed feeling personality
• moderately expressed judging personality

Normally I don’t put much stock in an assessment taken in a quiz that is completed online in a few minutes, except it’s hard to deny it was spot on with my recommended careers: Literature/Writer, Humanities, Web Design, Philosphy, Archaeology, Religious Education, Counseling. Oo! I’m special! Only one percent of the population is like me. Though on second thought, being special is rarely a good thing. It usually means you wear a helmet and ride the short bus to school. Or you work in software.

Maybe quizzes like this can be helpful in becoming self-aware, but I often worry that the downside of cogito, ergo sum is that we lose the ability to enjoy anything. I’ve read papers that reduce love down to a mere combination of pheromone reaction and evolutionary biology. Gee, how romantic. I also feel that being coldly self-analytical can suck the joy out of relationships and happiness in general. After all, if every time I feel happy all I do is think “well, this is merely the result of the proper balance of endorphins and serotonin in my brain goo” I can’t really feel happy any more. I feel like a lab rat. Likewise, attributing all of my behavior to irrevocable programming parameters borders dangerously close on predestination to me. And I’m just a little more Hobbes than Calvin.

I don’t want a quiz to tell me who I am or what my limitations are. I don’t really see the function of something like that. Self-reflection is healthy; self-labeling is not. So much of the work we do in daily life is centered around the abolition of arbitrary labels that confine rather than define. So while I enjoyed the quiz and felt rather flattered by the personality description I allegedly have, I think I’ll just keep on truckin’ with my current modus operandi: try to do the right thing for the right reason, apologize and make amends when I screw up, and constantly look for opportunities to learn.