HR: "Do you have a moment? We just want to ask you about your self-assessment?"
Me: "Sure."
HR: "So, for 'personality type', we were expecting something from Myers-Briggs. You know, like ENJF."
Me: "Oh?"
HR: "You selected 'Other' and filled in, 'Chaotic Good'."
Me: "Yes, that's right."
HR: "Why?"
Me: "Because I use the term 'fortnight' as often as possible in communications in a US-based company, replace 'z's with 's'es, and convert dates everywhere to ISO8601."
HR: "Well yes we can see how that would be classified as 'Chaotic Good', but we were expecting something grounded in science."
Me: "So why were you asking for Myers-Briggs?"

#Microfiction

@backupbear I'd have to search to find it, but there was a paper a few years back showing that a model could learn to predict one (or was it two?) of the four variables based on video of eye movements. I found that interesting 'cause I've always said Myers-Briggs was nonsense, but apparently one of the axis at least seems to map to something, maybe? Just the fact that one axis can be predicted well from other data... idk.

@stevenaleach @backupbear my sister got really into astrology and could guess someone’s sun sign at way better than 1 in 12. This confused me for ages.

I still can’t explain it, except with the non-explanation that “human psychology is really, really complicated and we really don’t understand it at all well”.

I offer this in the hope it provides some intellectual comfort.

@GentlemanTech @stevenaleach @backupbear

Astrology has got a bad rep - it is not as useless as most people claim.

(It's not at all reliable either, but that's a different story).

An astrological chart - and the interpretation of it - works best if it is hand-made by a competent and experienced person. No computers - everything must be looked up in printed siderial tables and entered manually.

My arguments for this are too complex for a toot. But basically, it's about scaffolding intuition.

@paelse @stevenaleach @backupbear that actually makes sense, given how much we don’t know about all of this, and especially intuition.

@paelse @GentlemanTech @backupbear

*Obviously* the astrological stuff is nonsense, but I wonder if it has roots/inspirations in personality/developmental differences between winter and summer babies pre-electricity.

We have seasonless diets in the modern world, plus of course electric lighting.

Throughout most of human history and all of prehistory that was not the case.

Nutritional and sociological differences during developmental periods may well have resulted in stereotypical "types".

@stevenaleach
In many school systems, your date of birth decides whether you go to class with kids older or younger than yourself. That could influence personality.

@paelse @GentlemanTech @backupbear

@paelse @GentlemanTech @stevenaleach @backupbear
Astrology is utter bullshit. There is no reason at all to ever believe that the motions of planets affects the behavior and personality of large segments of the population.

Any and all well done studies show it to be meaningless and useless.

@atzanteol @paelse @stevenaleach @backupbear that was my position too.

I’m glad I was able to re-evaluate my position when confronted with evidence that contradicted it.

I don’t expect you to believe me. The evidence I experienced is hearsay for you. You’re right to be extremely skeptical.

And I don’t conclude that Astrology is true. Just that brains are probably more complicated than we understand. Maybe. Or maybe my sister cheated.