Tag: magic 8 ball

Ron Swanson mbti?

I know there are a lot of blogs that type characters out there.  This is not one.

Here’s why:

I’m typing primarily by external physical things, so a character to me is a combination of actor’s body language and voice patterns, a script writer’s dialogue and the costume designer’s wardrobe choices paired with hair and make-up.

Usually, the character is not that dissimilar from the actor – if I see them in interview, their MBTI doesn’t seem significantly different, even if the actor and character are obviously different.

There are very few people I’ve found that play completely different types and even fewer who do so convincingly – most actors kind of push at the boundaries of their own type.  Casting directors seem to be pretty good at finding people who are convincing at their roles – ie, the same MBTI type.

Some examples of actors playing out of type would be Mandy Pantinkin (either an ENFP or ESFP) playing Jason Gideon, an INFJ on Criminal Minds,  Mary McDonnell (ISFP, I think?) playing Laura Roslin (ENTJ) on Battlestar Galactica, Katie Sackhoff (ENFP) playing Kara Thrace (STPish) on Battlestar, again.  Jared Padalecki (ESFP) playing Sam Winchester (ENTJ?) on Supernatural.  Claudia Black (ENFJ) as Aeryn Sun (ISTJish) on Farscape, or as Vala (ESFP) on Stargate SG-1. 

There are more, but they’re not coming to me right now.  Usually it’s SFPs and ENFPs, who can mimic the body language well enough and let the script, etc., cover the rest of the character.  ISFPs tend to be cast as INs a fair bit, presumably because it’s harder to find actors of that type.  All the examples I gave are all of people I watched ages ago and were kind of surprised by in interviews. I haven’t been all that surprised in a while – usually at this point I can just tell they’re playing off type.

There’s also a weird thing that ISTPs (maybe also INTPs?) do – I’m thinking Johnny Depp, mostly – where they’re playing a concept not a…person I guess, and I’m not sure how well that translates to an MBTI type.  I remember Johnny saying about Sleepy Hollow that he was playing Ichabod Crane as a girl-detective, like Nancy Drew. 

So to answer your question, I have typed Nick Offerman as an ISTP and I can’t unsee the ISTP.

Vivian maier D: please theres nothing about her only pictures (and a doc) and youre the only one i know that can type people just from seeing their pics so pls help me

Uh… I don’t, actually, type from pictures.  I look at pictures and take them into consideration while typing, but it’s never the only thing I use (I am wrong about pictures at least half the time).  Sometimes I can guess the right type if the subject is smiling – muscle tension is fairly type related.  It also helps if there are lots of kinds of photos – group shots, red carpets, paparazzi snapping their daily lives, etc.  I can guess at an understanding of their choices if I understand culturally where they’re coming from, so it helps if they’re still alive, wearing western dress etc..  

I do move people around a lot when their picture looks wrong in the tag, but I already have the knowledge of what they’re like in motion when I do that.

Unfortunately I have no idea about Vivian.  I can’t build up an idea of her as any type in particular from self-portraits.  Her face is slack – no muscle tension, except for in one photo (I’m not entirely sure is her), where possibly she’s just squinting from sun.  I have only her point of view.  It’s not enough to go on.

Do you think this world is set up for the estj and entj to succeed more easily than other types due to their natural inclination and if you had to guess what type asked you this question what would it be?

Well, I can’t tell what type you are from this… I’ve asked myself variations of the same question, and I’m sure we’re not the only ones out there.

I think you want to ask yourself what your personal definition of success is, though, and if it lines up with your perceived societal expectation of success.

The world doesn’t share one set of values, but I see what you’re getting at so: I think mbti type matters a lot less than being rich, white (depending on the country you’re in) and male.  My hazy impression of institutional power is that rich white men are at the top, and that the benefits meant to trickle down to everyone mostly trickle down to other rich white men.

That said…

Looking at political power, most world leaders seem to be extraverted Ts, with the odd EF and the very odd ISTJ.

In entertainment, the top paid actors of the year are usually male S-types, with the odd exception for NPs who can pull off being action stars.  Can’t tell with the musicians – haven’t typed enough of them.

The two types overwhelmingly winning more awards (and therefore, I’m assuming, more funding) in every area of academia are ENTJs and ENTPs.

I haven’t really looked very closely at the people in charge of any other institutions with a lot of money and power, but again, the measure of someone’s success by the amount of money and power they have is pretty limiting.

Not sure if this has been asked before but would you try and type someone if the video interview is subtitled in English?

Try is not the right word here – I would try (I have tried and sometimes even succeeded), but it is much better for my sanity and time management (hah!) if I tell you not to ask me.

The problem with typing people in other languages isn’t necessarily the language itself, but the missing context.  If I’m watching, say, a K-drama, I’ll start typing characters because there’s story and interaction and I can get the jist of type from how people relate to each other.  Probably if I were watching a subbed reality show with a “story arc” (e.g. Bachelor or Survivor), I could pick up types, but I am extremely resistant to watching reality tv at all, so good luck with that.  If I’m watching a political interview where I don’t understand the cultural and political history and I’ve never watched the interviewer before, etc., it’s like watching aliens.  I spend a lot of time wondering if what that thing means to me also means the same thing to them.  Am I judging them by Fi – my personal bias (yes), or by Si – my objective understanding of MBTI (no, and this is basically impossible without a lot of trial and error to establish patterns because I don’t have enough understanding of what is MBTI and what is culture or person-specific).

To be honest, every new group I start typing is like this at first (actors, writers, scientists, rappers, athletes, people from other countries or ethnicities etc.), but at least we have language and some shared cultural cues in common.  It makes it easier to check into them a little, find their peers and also find out what other people think of them and so on.  It also makes it a little easier to guess at why life experience has shaped one particular group of people a little differently from others of their type.

Anyway, I could probably type people from subbed interviews (and in fact, if English isn’t the person’s first language, I do check out subbed interviews to see how they interact in their own language), but I don’t have the time and energy to pick out the social undercurrents of people whose language I don’t speak or read so no, please don’t ask.

Have you ever thought about doing an archetype hashtag? When you suggest going and watching videos, it’s a bit daunting when there are 70 people in a tag. It would be nice to have a shortlist of like – I don’t know – 5 people per type, so that we could identify the pattern faster and not be confused (more confused) by shadow functions or people with media training that are more removed from their natural instincts.

No.

I realize that 70 videos is daunting – I’m putting off re-checking a lot of the extraverted tags because I agree that is a lot of video.  You don’t actually need to watch 70 videos in a row, though.  You can watch 5.  The more you watch, however, the better the idea you’ll have of the range of the type (hopefully), or of when I’ve typed someone and got it wrong (let me know!).

The archetype of each MBTI type is the profile.  It’s an idea.  People are not archetypes.  Every person is a valid example of their type, regardless of whether or not they’ve trained themselves out of certain habits (also note: shadow functions are not going to especially change your physicality, but being old or ill might).

My idea of definitely ENTP is not someone else’s idea of definitely ENTP.  I dislike very much that my idea of an ENTP should in any way take precedence.  For example, while diversity is important to me, I’m white, I grew up in a mostly white community, the media I consumed was mostly white and most of the people I typed first were white.  (When I’m being lazy and running low in the queue, it is still a lot faster to fill it up again by typing a bunch of white people who I already sort of know, because I have typed more white people and I have more type patterns in place for them.)

No matter which culture or subculture you’re in (be it cultural or racial or professional etc.), you’re going to have to make allowances for behaviour.  If you have a quiet ENTP author, they’re not less of an ENTP for spending a lot of time alone in their head – authors in general tend to be quieter versions of their type.  If you interview N-type athletes about their performances, it’s probably not going to sound much different from what an S-type would say, because it’s about a physical skill (also sport makes it difficult to tell between E and I sometimes, because, I’m assuming, endorphins).  And so on.

I’ve started with actors because of easy access to interviews and because of where my interests lie, but I would not particularly want to point to one actor per type, again, because there is a range, and a range of patterns.  (Unless we’re talking INFJ, and then I pick Amy Acker, because she’s the only actor in the tag.)

I’m an ESTP and my best friend is an ENFP. I love her to death but one thing that annoys me the fuck out of me about her is how much she loves cliché Pinterest quotes and how she’ll mention them in every single advice she gives me even when I don’t ask. For some reason I feel like is has to do with our personality types. Is there any correlation or is it just a coincidence?

I have no pinterest-loving (or inspirational quoting) ENFP friends so I have… no idea whatsoever.

Hey, INFP anon again. I just wanted to add that I am told that I am generally expressionless as well as that I come across as mean (most people say I seem harsher and tougher than my ENTP best friend). But, I am also of the belief that to use logic in every, or even most, situations is illogical because using logic to deal with humans, who are completely illogical and impossible to put into a clear science, doesn’t make sense and we should instead deal with each other in a value based way.

Anonymous said: Okay, INFP anon again. I am rephrasing my question, do I seem like an INFP to you?

You are not really selling yourself as an INFP.

Okay, what I’m getting from you is that you know what you think but want a second opinion, which would make you the fourth INTP to ask me to type you in basically this exact way.

I can’t recall for sure, but I don’t think I’ve had an INFP ask me to confirm their type.

ETA: Sorry, I got kind of snippy – I’ll try and get back to you when I’m not blogging tired and hungry. Bad combo.

I’m an INFP (have researched the functions, taken tests, etc., etc.) but I am also extremely logical (so much that, since I was eight, my dad would call me in arguments to give the logical standpoint) and I am not as non-confrontational as INFP’s are often described to be. I am willing to argue with people and even play devil’s advocate, and I am a fan of brutal honesty with very little sugarcoating. Should I reconsider my type?

It sounds like you are already reconsidering your type.