Interesting

This post at The Sheila Variations has turned me on to a writer I didn't know before, Malcolm Gladwell. I liked the post so much I ordered the book, Blink, and it looks like it will be waiting for me when I get home today.

Some years ago at a prior job I took a personality test that tried to classify personality based on Extrovert(E) vs. Introvert(I), Sensory(S) vs. Intuitive(N), Thinking(T) vs. Feeling(F), and Perception(P) vs. Judgement(J). It was an interesting exercise that also weighed how far towards one side or the other in each category you were. I don't remember the details like the weights, but I do remember that I fell into the ENTP slot.

Tests like these can be useful but I also take them with a grain of salt. They can be gamed, consciously or not, and even if they ask a few hundred questions they tend to be either/or in a world full of shades of gray. I took that particular test as part of the training that the company did for supervisors. Perhaps the best thing it did was clue me in on some of the less desirable characteristics I might have and allow me to work on, or at least moderate them.

We never got into much detail about what it all meant beyond the vocational and how it affected our management skills. I knew at the time that I really didn't know what this meant to me, but one thing drove out another and as time passed it slipped away. I started thinking about it again this Fall, as I became more and more dissatisfied with my job and my life. What are my good points, my bad points, what do I want to do when I grow up, you know, the usual.

I never finished the post I had started back then. I was under too much stress and there was too much stuff swirling around in my head. Some of what I did write down though was related to decision making and intuition. I've always gravitated towards work roles that were fast-paced and stressful, sometimes just plain chaotic. I've thrived in those roles mainly because I have the ability to make quick decisions, often without complete information and under pressure, and they are usually the right decisions. I started an attempt to puzzle out why that was so. Is it a skill? A talent? How does it work?

Why is it that I would meet a vendor for example, and get a good impression, but one of my co-workers would think he's a jerk? When faced with a snap decision it often just pops into my head. It's just suddenly there....DO THIS. Where did that come from?

There's a lot more I can write on this but I think I'll wait. I am so looking forward to this book.