Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cbmvax!snark!eric From: eric@snark.uu.net (Eric S. Raymond) Newsgroups: comp.society.futures Subject: Re: psychology of computer use Message-ID: Date: 27 Jan 89 19:20:59 GMT References: <8901251745.aa08408@note.nsf.gov> Sender: eric@snark.uu.net (Eric S. Raymond) Organization: Network 23 AI Research Group Lines: 28 In <8901251745.aa08408@note.nsf.gov> pbond@NOTE.NSF.GOV (Patricia Bond) writes: > For those of you who are familiar with > the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, I would hypothesize that > Introverts (and especially Introverted Thinkers - like me) would > be more inclined to use e-mail than other types. This ENTP doubts the correlation is that close. I think you could make a case for correlation with Thinker and perhaps a weaker one with Intuitive. For those of you unsure, BTW, ENTP="Extroverted-Intuitive-Thinker-Perceptive". Yes, it's a weird combination -- statistically one of the two rarest at around 3% of the U.S. population, if I remember the Myers-Briggs stuff correctly. I mention this because my (informal) observations suggest that most top hackers are either ENTP or INTJ like Ms. Bond. The latter type is more common than ENTP but not by much, possibly because we live in a largely ESFJ (Extrovert-Sensory- Feeling-Judging) culture. Don't think this is all psychobabble, either. The Myers-Briggs inventory is very effective for job-matching, even on 'unusual' types; I can still remember being startled down to my shoes when, after quickly testing out as an ENTP, I flipped to a recommendations section that predicted (correctly) that I was best suited to 'loner' roles in open-ended technical research projects (my experience since then has been that the more numerous INTJs make better team and application programmers than I do). -- Eric S. Raymond (the mad mastermind of TMN-Netnews) Email: eric@snark.uu.net CompuServe: [72037,2306] Post: 22 S. Warren Avenue, Malvern, PA 19355 Phone: (215)-296-5718